How to fix an Android phone that’s stuck on the white HTC logo

Sometimes phones, HTC phones included, get stuck or frozen on their boot-up screen. Sometimes an HTC Android phone will even get caught in a power cycling loop. The device will power on, load to the HTC logo, then power off, then power on, then off, on, off, but never actually loading all the way like it should. This can be extremely frustrating because you will not be able to even turn on your phone all the way, much less use it. If this has happened to you don’t fret, there is hope.

Now we might be able to fix this issue but let me stress that this is a PROBLEM, an uncommon, inconvenient and sometimes hard to fix problem, but this article should get you on the right track and will give you a good advantage when trying to fix a frozen HTC cell phone.

Let’s start simple and work our way from there

Power the phone off

Power cycling your phone or at least getting the phone to power off and on is going to be your first goal in troubleshooting a frozen HTC. If your phone doesn’t have a removable battery, which is becoming more common in HTC phones, then it can be a little harder to get your cell phone to power off.

Start by pressing the power key and holding it down for 10-20 seconds to see if you can get your HTC to power off. Sometimes powering the phone off can be difficult using this method and I have seen it take a minute or two of pressing and holding the power key for a phone to power off. It should only take 10-20 sec but if there is no success at first then you might have to hold the power key down a little longer.

Power the phone back on

If you were able to power the phone off by holding the power key then power the phone off and leave the phone off for about 30 seconds and then power the phone back on.

Hiccups

There are a few things that can go wrong with an Android device when trying to power it off.

Rebooting itself – If the phone is not staying off, for example you power the phone off and it turns itself on all by itself then troubleshooting properly is going to be more difficult. Make sure that the power key on your phone is not stuck or pressed in by a protective case.

Wont power off – frozen phones can be stubborn, and if you cannot power the phone off at all then this might be one of the only times that it would be appropriate to allow the phones battery to drain to zero, charge the phone a bit and then attempt to power the phone on again.

Try to avoid letting a lithium ion battery drain to zero whenever possible though as it’s hard on the battery and it can sometimes be a chore to get the battery to charge up again. If the HTC phone hangs or gets locked up or frozen again and still won’t let you power the phone off then let it drain once again and then charge it for a little bit and while it’s OFF but with a bit of a charge try the troubleshooting below.

Remove the memory card

If there is a memory card that can be removed from your HTC cell phone then take it out and try rebooting the phone without the memory card. If the phone boots without the memory card then after the phone is powered on all the way you can try reinserting the memory card back into the phone and then make an attempt to mount the card. Just don’t forget to power cycle the phone to see if it will allow you to turn it on with the memory card inserted again. If it locked up with the memory card inserted then the memory card might have malfunctioned and you might have to look into reformatting the card or even purchasing a replacement.

If this is the case then I recommend choosing a top memory card for some advice and tips on how to choose the best memory card for your HTC Android cell phone, but I digress.

Boots up and works properly

If the phone powers on properly and you are able to use your phone again then I recommend that you create a backup of your cell phones information just to be safe. There could be something on the phone that may be causing trouble. So perform a backup should your phone malfunction or something happens that’s outside of your control that way you don’t lose any of your important information.

HTC still frozen at the HTC logo or locking up

If you are able to power your HTC phone off and on but it gets stuck on the HTC logo again or freezes up before the phone can power on properly then proceed with the more in depth troubleshooting below.

There is still hope but there’s a catch

Your Android Smartphone will NOT POWER ON, which means that saving ALL your important information is going to be near impossible. Now don’t worry your contacts including your names and phone numbers are saved on your Gmail account. All you will need to do to get your contacts back is to log into your Gmail account again and BOOM! All your contacts are going to automatically pull back and get put on your phone.

Thank goodness for Google’s brilliant ideas. In fact if you ever lose your phone or heaven forbid it gets stolen and you need to file an insurance claim or purchase a new/different phone, all you need to do in order to transfer most of your information to your replacement android phone is log into your Gmail account.

It’s awesome! To check your Gmail account, when the phone is working correctly of course, all you need to do is go to your Home > Menu Key > Settings > Accounts (or Accounts and Sync), your Gmail account will be listed on that page. To check and make sure that your phone is backed up to your Gmail simply click on that Gmail account and make sure that it shows the days date next to it. If those sync options don’t show today’s date or if you ever want to sync manually tap “Sync Now”.

Try and make sure you know your Gmail Account a lot of people set it and forget it, make sure you got yours remembered or written down, you might need it!

Chances are very high that you have a Gmail and if you don’t then you’re going to want to create one. But I digress. Here is the fix if you’re stuck on the HTC screen.

Quick instructions

1. Start with a 2nd level reset

  • Power the phone on and then remove the battery (remove the battery with the phone on, make sure the phone is not plugged into a charger)
  • Count to 10 (10 seconds).
  • Put the battery back into the phone.
  • Power the phone on. (Now wait patiently for the phone to boot up. If you wait for more than 5 minutes, or longer than the phones average boot-up time, and it seems to still get stuck at the HTC white-screen again then proceed to step 2)
  • If the phone powers on correctly then go to step 4 if it does not or you cannot remove the battery from the device proceed to step 2  (you want to make sure to backup your mobile unit and do some additional troubleshooting to make sure that the phone doesn’t freeze again. I recommend a factory data reset, which can be located under the settings of your phone. Make sure to uncheck the option to delete/erase your memory card if given the chance. A Factory Data Reset will be a more secure fix to your phone).

2. Try the Recovery

If the 2nd level reset in step 1 doesn’t work and your HTC is still stuck on an infinite loop or showing the HTC logo then try this.

  • Pull the battery, and then reinsert it, but DON’T power it back on.
  • Make sure the phone has a GOOD charge on it and can be used without being plugged into the charger. I highly suggest that you charge it (while it’s powered off) for 15 minutes to an hour making sure that it has a GOOD charge on it.
  • After charging the phone for 15+ minutes unplug your HTC phone from the charger (make sure your HTC phone is unplugged or this won’t work).
  • Press and hold the Volume Down button and then briefly press and release the Power button while still holding the Volume Down button.
  • A special screen should pop up which will give you some options. When this screen appears release the volume down button.
  • Use the Volume keys to scroll through the available options until the “Recovery” option is highlighted.
  • Once Recovery is highlighted use the Power key to make the selection.
  • This next step is going to depend on the phone but typically a black screen should pop up showing a sync icon (2 green arrows forming a circle and an arrow pointing down in the middle of that circle).
  • Wait patiently…  
  • After a minute or two the icon should change and switch to a picture of a phone with a red exclamation mark inside of a red triangle symbol.
  • Once you see the red exclamation mark, pull out the battery, reinsert the battery, and power the phone on like you normally would. Note: if your phone doesn’t have a removable battery then your main goal is to reboot the phone. You can often hold the power button down for a few seconds to turn your cell phone off instead of removing the battery.

The phone should boot up and you should still have all of your information and it should be working at 100%.

Don’t forget to backup the information on your HTC just in case something happens to your phone and for some reason you cannot recover the unit again.

If your phone is still stuck and you have waited a few minutes to make sure that it is in fact still stuck at the HTC screen or caught in a loop proceed to the next step.

Sounds like a possible software issue in the phone

We might need to do what is called an Alternate Factory Data Reset, try not to panic when I tell you that we are going to need to erase all the information from the unit. It isn’t clear what caused the issue. It could be a corrupted file, a glitch in the software, a virus (viruses are not common but they do happen), most likely something picked up online or through a bad app.

The worst part of this issue is that you can’t get into your phone which means that we can’t backup texts, can’t backup apps, the Call log etc. HTC is really good about automatically backing up information for you, so you shouldn’t lose much but just FYI.  “Can I take my mobile phone to the store where I bought the phone to backup my info?” Nope and here’s why. Your phone will not power on all the way which means it cannot communicate with the store’s machine or your computer for that matter. Cut and dry you need to do this reset to get your phone working correctly. Here is how you can try and get your phone to boot up after trying the battery pull.

  • Give it 24-48 hours – your phone might be performing an update on its software, which is great! It’s always a good idea to keep your software up to date, this helps your phone run faster, smoother and most of the time adds more functionality. If you can, then also check your WiFi to make sure it’s on (check your home not on the phone its self. Wireless internet will help you download the update a lot faster and you don’t use your service providers data plan, which will save you money too)
  • So if you can wait then wait – yes I know we NEED our phones and your probably already starting to show symptoms of withdraw but if you file an Insurance or warranty claim you’re going to have to wait at least 2-6 business days to get a replacement and they usually have you do the steps shown below anyways (the manufacture requires that your phone gets wiped to make sure it’s a manufacturing defect and not something 3rd party causing the issue). PLUS when getting a replacement it’s almost always a refurbished or reconditioned unit. The best option is to fix the phone you have. If you have already waited then proceed down the page.

Perform the Alternative Reset –

  1. Power the phone off. – (If the mobile is still getting stuck/frozen at HTC then we are going to have to do some troubleshooting. Don’t worry our options are limited for this issue and I’ll help you every step of the way). Make sure your phone is no longer powered on and make sure it’s NOT plugged into a charger or this won’t work. Remember the phone needs to be completely off. If the phone will not power off then remove the battery and count to ten, put the battery back in and your good to go. Note: you can also remove the memory card as a precaution, the reset shouldn’t effect it in the slightest but if it sets your mind at ease you may remove the memory card aka SD card and it won’t affect the reset. If you don’t know if your phone has a memory card then don’t worry about it, because, again, it shouldn’t affect it.
  2. Press your mobile’s reset key combination – this might vary depending on what model of phone you have. I recommend you read how to hard reset an Android smartphone for some common hard reset methods. The standard or default reset combo for an HTC smart/Android phone is as follows:
  3. Press and hold Volume up + Volume Down + the Power key. Hold down the volume down button, then (while still holding the volume down key) press and hold the volume up key, while pressing these two keys press and hold the power key.
  4. When the phone powers on release the power key (and only the power key, keep holding volume up and volume down)
  5. A fastboot screen with options should pop up – When it does release all of the keys.  (If the phone boots up regularly, and all the way, then go to step 4). If the mobile gets stuck on HTC again then the reset didn’t go through properly. Try the reset again, you might have to pull the battery and try multiple times. I have had to try like 8 times before I could get it to kick in. Basically try it until you get to a screen giving you some options. If you tried both volume controls and the power key combo and simply cannot get the device to show the fastboot screen then try holding only the Volume Down + Power key. Some phones are different even being the same model! When an update comes along the reset procedure might even change (the Motorola Atrix was such a model when it updated from 1.x.x Froyo to the 2.x.x Gingerbread, it removed the need to tap the lower right of the screen to get the fastboot to work correctly. This was a good thing because you couldn’t tap the screen if the device was experiencing a touch screen issue, but I digress).
  6. Scroll to Factory data reset – To scroll use the volume down to scroll through the options, then use the power key to make the selection. It might read something like reset phone or master clear, you’re not looking to reboot your phone you’re looking for a reset/erase option. If the power key doesn’t allow you to select the option then use the volume up key. Most HTCs however have the volume controls as navigations for making selections.
  7. Wait for the phone to reboot – the phone should power itself off all by itself then it should power itself back on all by itself. This can take 15 min. but usually only takes like 5 min, if even that.
  8. Be Patient – it can take a few minutes to load back up. Even when doing a reset when a phone is not having any problems, or performing a reset through the settings of the mobile device this happens so just wait. It might even look like it’s stuck on the HTC screen again. Don’t start panicking yet. Just give it like 15 min. If phone is still showing the HTC loading screen or starts to power cycle (turning off and on over and over all by its self) then do the alternate reset again.

After doing the alternative reset you’re left with a few options

Your phone has started working correctly

Enjoy your working phone! You are going to have to set up the phone again, just like you did when you first got it. It’s very self explanatory, you shouldn’t have any problems.  Make sure you log into your Gmail account. Again, after you have setup your phone and logged into Gmail your mobile phone should sync your contacts back onto the phone.

Some providers add secondary backups like the ATT address book or Sprint mobile sync, etc. if your phone prompts you to sync, when accessing contacts, then I would sync with that option (if it asks you if you want to remove/replace/delete current contacts or any information then hit no. Then for your own knowledge check your pictures to see if they are still there. HTC is pretty good with having pictures save automatically to the memory card as opposed to other mobile providers; Samsung mobile phones, for example have the feature but requires the user to set it up themselves in the settings, which the average user doesn’t usually do.

Your phone might look a little different as well. As mentioned above its going to think it’s brand new right off the shelf.

Still Stuck on the white HTC logo

Bummer, I recommend that you try the reset once more. If it’s stuck and that’s all there is to it then this could indicate a serious problem with your phones Operating System; more specifically its boot loader.

If your phone is still stuck on its startup logo then I highly suggest that you read and follow the advice listed at How to try and fix an Android smartphone that is stuck and wont boot past its startup logo.

If the advice listed on that guide doesn’t help (and I think it will), then we are running out of options.

dg phone, LG phone, Motorola phone, etc if it’s ATT it should work. This is sometimes really good to know if your phone has damage like a cracked screen and needs to be replaced and you can’t file an insurance claim, or if you NEED a phone while you wait for a replacement phone to arrive.

Recap

I hope that I was able to get you taken care of one way or another. Remember that a 2nd level reset, basically pulling your battery out of your phone with it powered on, will often fix a lot of minor issues with smart phones, at least temporarily, and a Factory Data Reset (we did a factory data reset an alternate way) will usually be a more permanent fix. After doing a reset on the phone make sure to try it without downloading any apps for a couple days.

Usually when smart phones, especially Android phones, act up its because of a bad app. Try using the phone with a clean install for a couple days then adding apps one at a time. Download an app try it out for a few days, download another app try it, etc. remember if you download an app and your phone starts having problems then you should uninstall that app and not use it any more.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to leave a comment, or perform a search on the site, there is a lot of information present on this site as far as proper phone care and maintenance.

This INTEL was submitted by:

If you found this content

Informative Helpful Instructive Beneficial Valuable Educational Useful

Shaken

Stirred

Help others find this by sharing it...

96 thoughts on “How to fix an Android phone that’s stuck on the white HTC logo”

  1. thanks!
    hey super thanks my phone works and its like brand new! just perfect! i highly recommend this to everyone who’s phone suffers the white screen of death, etc! try this guys advice you will not regret it i promise! and who ever is behind this thank you so much! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 salute you. god bless!

    1. Your welcome Mitch

      I’m glad that this guide was able to help you get your phone working correctly again. The HTC white screen of death is not a fun problem to have on a phone and can sometimes be very hard to fix.

      Don’t forget to periodically backup your device just in case it gets lost, stolen, damaged or malfunctions to a degree that cannot be repaired or fixed.

      Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment and I hope you enjoy your working HTC smartphone.

      1. please help again 🙂
        yes! thanks again. 🙂 but i have another problem now. after i reset and etc my phone cannot download any apps now on my sd card, is that normal? i try to download an apps but it only says “file package is invalid” how can i fix it? please help me. thanks in advance and sorry for any interference. 🙂

        1. Welcome back Mitch,

          Welcome back Mitch,

          You did NOTHING wrong and typically your phone should be working properly but… here is what happened. When you reset your phone it set your phone back to how it was when it first came out of the box, just like it was when it was brand new, like you said in your first comment post.

          When a phone is turned on for the first time it is programmed to go online and download the updates for any applications that might have been released while the phone was sitting in its box waiting to be opened for the first time. Updates happen frequently on the Android OS (Operating System) so this is a good thing for new phone owners.

          At the beginning of this month (August 2013) the Google Play Store Application (where you download your applications from, previously known as the marketplace) released an update for that program that appears to have a bug.

          The all powerful Google (who owns Android) knows about the bug and is working to fix it, but as of right this second (August 21, 2013) there doesn’t seem to be a guaranteed fix for it.

          So this [#10230007] “Package File Invalid” error message that you are getting when trying to download or update applications has nothing to do with your end and you did nothing wrong or incorrectly. You did everything right. It’s the big boys fault; the ones who helped make your phone. The only real thing that you can do is wait for the software patch (which they are working on even as you read this comment, if it hasn’t come out yet).

          You can search for updates on your device (but HTC usually does this automatically all by itself) or you can even TRY to perform a regular factory data reset through the settings or a hard reset like you did earlier. When your phone reboots and goes to download the Play Store application again Google might have put the previous software up as a temporary fix to prevent anyone else from downloading the faulty program. This kind of thing is very uncommon on the major apps like the Play Store but it’s a new issue (this month) and it is still getting ironed out and resolved.

          If the reset doesn’t fix it then all you can do for now is wait for the update. Thank you for coming back and letting me know about this. I think I might write an article about it to try and help others as well.

          Thank you Mitch, if you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask.

          1. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
            ah ok now i understand!:) get it! get it! im so sorry.:p hahaha! thanks Sir James Bond you’re such a big help idol! 😀 thank you so much! 🙂

  2. Thanks A thousand batch 🙂 🙂
    Hi
    The info you provided helped me so much and now my phone is functioning again. Big up to you whoever is behind all this much appreciated.

  3. Many many thanks
    I had hangs problem on my QMobile Noir A50. I tried many times to fix this problem with factory restore and clean cache. But, It worked fine for one time only. after 2nd boot, I had to bear this hangs problem again. so, finally i discovered this website and fix my problem with 1st procedure mentioned.

    Power the phone on and then remove the battery (remove the battery with the phone on, make sure the phone is not plugged into a charger), Count to 10 (10 seconds), Put the battery back into the phone.

    1. You’re welcome

      Hi Muhammad Asif

      Thank you for taking the time to leave such a nice comment. I am happy that a second level reset or simply pulling out the battery while the phone was on helped to get your phone working again.

      This is one of the best things to try first as it can often fix common issues that can occur on an Android cell phone.

      If you did a “factory restore” (I’m assuming a factory data reset) and it erased everything from the phone then that too, albeit a little extreme as it’s usually one of the last things to try when troubleshooting, can also fix most problems that can occur. In fact a factory reset can usually fix many more types of software related problems than a simple battery pull can. So I just wanted to let you know that if this problem starts happening more frequently or continues to give you issues then you might have a bad application on your phone that’s causing problems.

      To locate a bad app you can reset the phone, and then use it with no apps for a few days, then download an app, try it for a few days, make sure everything is working properly, download another app, try it for a few days, and so on and so forth. I mentioned this briefly in the “Recap” section of the article but I thought I would re-mention it as that might be the cause of the issue. If your phone continues to “hang” and it becomes a constant problem on your QMobile Noir A50 then try the phone without any apps as that is usually the most likely culprit.

      Thanks again for visiting and commenting on the site Muhammad Asif.

  4. my htc one x wont turn on
    After trying the power, volume combo my htc one x is stuck at the android logo with an exclamation mark in a red triangle. What do i do please??

  5. Stuck on HTC logo
    I have an HTC One XL and I can’t take the battery out. What do I do then. It’s stuck on logo and I can’t turn off or will it power on to home screen.

    1. Sometimes phones can be stubborn

      Hey Chris,

      Sometimes when an HTC has this problem it can be really stubborn and might not want to power off or power cycle like it should. I edited the beginning of the article a bit regarding issues that a person might run into when trying to power off or reboot their device.

      I hope it helps. If you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask.

  6. It doesn’t have a removable battery
    Hi! I did everything successfully until the red exclamation mark, but… I can’t remove the battery, it doesn’t have a removable battery. What can I do? Please Help!!… and thanks a lot for the hope…

    1. Thank you for pointing that out

      Hi Dana,

      It’s often the last thing on a person’s mind when choosing a new cell phone but choosing a phone with a removable battery can save you a headache if your phone starts acting up later. It’s not a big deal that you cannot remove your battery you just can’t perform a second level reset (battery pull). You should still be able to get your cell phone up and running again.

      Which from your description it sounds like you tried to do the recovery option and got to the “red explanation mark” part and couldn’t pull your battery so you got stuck.

      Thank you for pointing that out for me. I went back and updated the article.

      You just need to power the phone off. Removing the battery is one of the best ways to guarantee the cell phone is completely off. If your phone doesn’t have a removable battery then you should be able to hold the power button down until the phone powers off. Wait a few seconds and then press the power button again to power your phone back on. Sometimes while on the Android system recovery screen, which often shows a red explanation mark with an Android lying down, there is an option to “reboot system now” which will power the phone off and on. Any of those options should work in order to get your phone back on again.

      If your phone is still stuck then try the alternate reset. It is the most effective tool in fixing a frozen HTC cell phone.

      I hope that helps. If you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask. And if you do need more help then don’t forget to let me know what type of HTC phone you have so that I can better assist you when answering your question(s).

      Thanks for visiting the site and hope to hear from you soon.

  7. HTC One Stuck
    My HTC One is stuck on a frozen white screen with fastboot, recovery, factory reset, clear storage, etc. links or something on that page. If i hold the power button down for like 20 seconds it turns off but then comes back on itself 10 seconds later. What’s wrong with my phone???

    1. Hum… A little hard to tell

      Hey Clay,

      When your HTC One powers on does it automatically go to that white fastboot screen whether or not you hold down any keys? Or is it freezing or getting stuck at the HTC logo screen?

      If your phone goes to that fastboot screen every time it tries to turn on then it’s likely one of your volume keys is stuck, pressed in, or malfunctioning and your phone thinks that you are trying to access your fastboot menu.

      The fastboot/recovery screen is sometimes needed when a phone won’t power on properly, is freezing, hung up, stuck, or just doesn’t want to even turn on. From this screen you can hard reset your phone and solve most software issues that can cause trouble on an HTC cell phone, or any Android smartphone for that matter.

      Accessing the fastboot/recover screen varies from phone to phone but on many HTC Android cell phones if you wanted to access the option to reset your phone and couldn’t get into the phones settings to perform a Factory data reset then you could power the phone off, hold the Volume Down key, and the Power key to start up the phone and it would go directly into the fastboot screen allowing you to access the Wipe data/factory reset option, which of course allows you to reset your phone without accessing the phones settings. A very powerful tool when troubleshooting.

      So if your Volume Down button was stuck in the pushed in position then when the phone was powering on it would think you were trying to access this feature and of course it would take you to that screen.

      Your phone shouldn’t be powering itself on either. That can be a hardware issue, usually resulting from a pressed in or malfunctioning power key. Or it could be a software bug and you might want to look into backing up your phone (if possible) and performing a hard reset to rule out any software issues.

  8. my htc is still stuck at logo
    my htc is still stuck at logo
    it happened after i installed the PYD kernel
    please help

  9. Wow
    Whoever wrote this article.. Thank you so much lol you just saved my life my mom has an Htc with a non-removable battery and it was stuck at the start up screen while I was borrowing it.. I was sitting here for a half hour thinking I was a dead man lol I didn’t think I’d be able to power it off without removal of the battery but thanks to this article I was able to un-freeze it . THANK YOU SO MUCH 😀 -Eddie G

  10. Feedback
    Thank you for the information. It is well written, easy to follow and well thought out. My HTC One is still stuck on the HTC One screen. It sequences as follows:
    I reboot using the power down and the two volume keys. It then flashes at the bottom, turns off, HTC Quietly Brilliant, Telco Company, and then goes back the HTC One screen. I cannot remove the battery.

    Open to any other suggestions, but I appreciate the work that you have already done on this post.

    1. How to fix an HTC One that’s stuck on its HTC screen

      Hey Adam,

      Thank you for the positive feedback, I appreciate it. Fixing an HTC android phone that’s stuck on its startup screen can be a tuff fix sometimes but let’s see if we can’t at least get to your HTC One’s Fastboot screen.

      Android phones have different methods of accessing their Fastboot screens depending on what make and model the phone is. For the HTC One instead of using the both of the volume keys try using just the Volume down button and the Power key.

      So power off your HTC One and then hold the Volume down button and Power key, you’ll see the “HTC quietly brilliant” screen, then the “HTC one” screen, then you might see a screen that says “To restart your phone, continue to press and hold the power button for 1 second.” Just ignore it and keep holding the Volume down and Power button, the screen might go black for 5-10 seconds but keep holding the keys until the Fastboot screen appears.

      If you can get the “FASTBOOT” screen to pop up then try the “RECOVERY” option first, if it doesn’t work then try accessing the FASTBOOT screen again and then try the “FACTORY RESET” option. Remember that a factory reset is a hard reset and it will erase the information on your phone BUT it should get your phone to start up properly. Just try the Recovery option first.

      Good luck Adam, I hope that helps. Let me know if your phone gives you any more problems or if you have any more questions.

  11. Htc one x
    My htc one x just made a strange buzzing noise when I looked at it the screen was all white then it just died. Now it wont power on or charge up. Help.

    1. That doesn’t sound very good

      Hi Marto,

      Sorry to hear about your HTC One X. Hearing a strange buzzing and then having your phone die and become unresponsive isn’t a good sign, especially if it won’t even recognize a charger either.

      For that issue, I would try charging it all night as a precaution, try to boot it up in the morning and if it’s still unresponsive then it sounds like it has seriously malfunctioned and will most likely need to be replaced…

      If by chance your phone is still under warranty then you can file a warranty claim as the warranty would cover such a malfunction, this would also be one of the most affordable options if available. If your phone is out of warranty then your options are going to be limited. You can try taking it into a repair shop but it doesn’t sound like a cheap fix, you would probably be better off buying a new unit.

      Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful Marto. Hopefully charging it for a while will breathe some life into it again and let you turn it back on.

  12. i am updating my htc one x
    i am updating my htc one x (at&t) version to 4.2 through my pc when suddenly my pc said htc fast boot has stopped working and closed now my phone is stuck at htc logo with a green progress bar while setup at computer is saying rebooting android phone …… any help

    1. HTC One X (AT&T) stuck on HTC logo when updating

      Hi Tanveer,

      An interesting situation you have there, as you have to be careful when updating a smartphones software, if the phone gets unplugged or powered off or in rare cases like yours it has an error then it can cause some serious issues with the phone and even cause it not to boot properly.

      Since your computer is saying “rebooting” as opposed to installing or downloading updates, and your phone has a progress bar instead of just the white HTC logo then it sounds like there is a good chance your phone will be ok.

      What I would do is give the phone a few hours to see if the green progress bar you mentioned moves at all, if your phone has downloaded the updates from the computer and needs time to install the updates then the progress bar might be a good thing as it would show you an estimated time until the phone is finished and when it loads to 100% the phone will likely reboot to its new Android 4.2 Operating System and be ready to use. (Note: I have seen an HTC phone take ALL night to update to a new version of Android so patience can sometimes be the key during this process).

      If there is absolutely no progress on the phone after a few hours of waiting (or waiting all night) then turn the phone off and then back on manually to see if it will get it to finish what it needs to do and boot up properly. It doesn’t sound like your phone is bricked or has malfunctioned though it probably just needs some time to finish updating.

      If your phone still doesn’t boot up correctly within 48 hours then let me know, and we’ll look into some other things that you may be able to try to get it to start up properly. Good luck Tanveer, and I hope to hear back from you soon.

      1. My phone is updated now
        Hi James,
        well my phone is updated now what i did was that i powered off my phone hold VOLUME DOWN button while powering on the device. then used the volume buttons to scroll to FASTBOOT and then press the POWER button to select it after that i connected the device to the PC while in this state and attempted to install the ROM update again. this process updated my phone’s software and now i am using 4.2 on my cell
        thanks for your quick response.

  13. HTC One Mini powering on & off at HTC logo after system upgrade
    I’ve got an HTC One Mini and today, when I got a prompt to do a system upgrade, I did. I don’t know if it upgraded completely because since six hours ago, it’s been powering on and off (ie white screen with ‘htc’ logo in the middle and then going to a black screen) till the battery power ran out. I tried letting the battery run out twice, and attempted to reboot. Nothing worked. Not even the ‘recovery’. Now I’m thinking should I wait 24/48 hours? BTW why do you recommend waiting? What does that accomplish?

    But my main concern, are my photos and videos. Will I still have them after doing the recommended factor reset?

    Sorry for all the questions but I am a little frantic as you can imagine.
    Thanks so much for having this help page.

    1. How to try and fix your HTC One Mini

      Hi CK,

      When things don’t go as planned, especially when it comes to our cell phones, it can be easy to get a little frantic. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious and with any luck we’ll be able to get your HTC One Mini up and running properly again with no loss of data.

      HTC phones can sometimes hang or freeze on the HTC logo after performing an update; I briefly mention this in the guide above when talking about how to try and resolve possible software issues and waiting for 24-48 hours, as you already know, can often fix a frozen HTC in those particular circumstances.

      To answer your question as to why waiting may resolve the issue, often when an HTC phone displays the HTC logo after updating it needs to finish the update process. Imagine an invisible progress bar where the HTC screen is. Some HTC phones seem to finish updating faster than others. Usually they update pretty quickly but I have seen an HTC phone take over a day to finish updating properly thus the suggestion to wait 24-48 hours.

      The strange thing about your issue is that your HTC One Mini is not booting to its HTC screen and then staying there like it would usually do in those types of situations. You said that it was powering on getting to the HTC logo and then powering off which means that it’s stuck in a boot loop which is not a good sign as it might be something more serious.

      If the update didn’t install properly and there is an issue with the Bootloader then the boot-up/start-up process of a phone might have issues, which can include the problem that you are currently experiencing. We are getting a little technical but the Bootloader is part of the software which gets executed before an OS (Operating System), in our case the Android OS, starts to run. Every Android smartphone has a Bootloader that tells the OS kernel to boot normally. If there is a problem with the Bootloader then the phone may not know how to boot correctly and can turn on get to the HTC logo and then power off, over and over again in an endless loop. This isn’t good, obviously, because if your phone won’t turn on then you can’t ever use it.

      It’s also not good because since the phone isn’t powering on properly you won’t be able to connect it to a computer to backup your photos and videos that are saved to the device. It’s also not good because since the HTC One Mini doesn’t offer external storage you won’t be able to access the recovery mode and do a manual update through an SD card. On a side note since your phone doesn’t have a memory card slot your pictures and videos are most likely stored to the phones internal storage, unless the HTC One Mini has a built in secondary storage (unlikely but not sure), and if you try an alternative reset, it’s going to wipe everything from the internal storage including your pictures and videos, and to make it worse a hard reset (wiping the phone) doesn’t usually touch the OS so if the bootloaders messed up the reset might fix it but then again it might not…

      There is a lot of what ifs and maybes involved in your situation and you won’t really know for sure until you try it. Your options are going to be limited though as your phone is pretty much useless if it won’t turn on properly. I would leave it plugged into a charger for a day or two and see if it will start up properly. If there is no progress after a day or two and your phone continues to have issues you’re going to be stuck between a rock and a hard place and although a hard reset is going to be what you try LAST in troubleshooting, it may be one of the few options that you have available. Just a reminder that you can access the Factory Reset option the same way that you accessed the Recovery option earlier, with the Volume Down button and Power button.

      Hold off on the alternative factory reset for now though and if your phone doesn’t boot up after a day on the charger come back to the site and let me know some more information. Try to answer the following questions for me:

      • When did you get your phone?
      • Does the phone power on and off when connected to a charger?
      • Does the phone power off and on all by itself? Or when it powers off do you have to manually power it back on?
      • Did you have any issues when upgrading? Did the battery run out or did the phone have any power issues?
      • Is the phone need a Wi-Fi that it remembers? Like a home Wi-Fi?
      • Were you in range of a Wi-Fi when performing the update?
      • To your knowledge, did the updated download and prompt you to install it? Or did it pretty much prompt you for a system upgrade that was it?

      Since your phone can access the recovery screen it gives you a fighting chance at getting your phone to work again so you probably won’t have to go through the hassle of a replacement but it’s the information on your phone that I’m worried about. Either way let me know CK and we’ll try and go from there.

  14. Hi there. I just caught up
    Hi there. I just caught up with the email you sent me. Sigh, no phone had to get home to sign in. Oh no! No phone doesn’t have an external storage, it’s a htc one MINI.
    Right now, I’m doing as u advised, letting it charge to 100%.

  15. I am facing this problem.
    I am facing this problem.
    I tried doing factory setting and recovery.
    But its still as it was. I have non-removable battery.
    Please help me.

  16. My htc One Stuck on wite Logo Screen on reboot
    Hy Please help i am New Not much familiar with such Problems ..my cell Problem is When i Download New Update and After Installation when my cell phone is reboot for starting then it stuck on wite Screen htc One Logo….when i Power Off then it atomaticaly restart and again Stuck on wite Logo Screen….so please help me what should i do 🙁

  17. Thanks for the article
    Thanks for the article. My phone is currently stuck on the white screen HTC quietly brilliant. It was halfway through an update and froze here. Ive tried all in your article and it looks like ill have to go see telstra as nothing is working. Might have something to do with the fact my volume down button doesn’t work. Thanks anyway

  18. very informative
    Hey,

    First I must say that this is very well written informative piece. Great job, but I still have an issue.

    I tried to unlock bootloader on my HTC ChaCha n then tried setting default install location to sd card. Now after all this when I am trying to reset the phone to factory defaults.Its getting stuck on HTC Logo. Every time I need to physically remove n reinsert the battery to get it started but not getting reset.

    I tried the manual way to which is volume down+power button n then factory reset. no go.

    I tried recovery like same way. no go. So I dunno what to do.

    Do u think if you have anything up your sleeve to help me in this matter?

    That will be a great help.

    1. Stuck on HTC because of issues with your Bootloader

      Hi Sanjay,

      Thank you for the compliment, I appreciate it.

      Now, as far as solving your issue… I try to stay away from giving advice about Flashing, Rooting, Custom ROMs, Unlocking a phone’s Bootloader, etc. for this very reason. If it’s not done exactly right or if it’s done properly but there is a hiccup then bad things can happen.

      But when a phone has such an incredibly low amount of internal storage like the HTC ChaCha (aka HTC Status) unlocking your cell phones bootloader to allow you to store information (such as applications) to your memory card instead of on the phones internal storage may be one of your best options at keeping the phone functional. 512 MB of memory is a ridiculously low amount of storage, as I am sure you already know, and can be very easy to fill; and when a phone’s storage is plump full it can lead to all kinds of other issues. But I digress.

      So let’s start with why this is likely happening and go from there.

      It sounds like your bootloader is malfunctioning. Your bootloader instructs your phone on how to “boot” up aka turn on properly. After trying to unlock the bootloader something must have happened to it because now it’s not telling your HTC how to turn on properly thus it starts to turn on, gets to the HTC screen, gets confused because the bootloader isn’t telling it how to turn on correctly, and hangs.

      So a hard reset isn’t going to fix your phone because a reset just erases information from the phone and puts it back to stock. If your phone was getting stuck on the HTC logo because something on the phone was causing problems then a reset would remove that something and likely fix it. A hard reset doesn’t touch your Operating System or its software though, which is why it’s still acting up.

      Now here is the good news.

      Since your phone is still turning on (or trying to turn on) you should be able to fix your phone you just need to get your bootloader working properly again. Try locking it and then unlocking it again. Maybe it was just a glitch and if you try again maybe it will fix it. If not, then you may need manually put a functional bootloader onto the phone again. Remember to do your homework when doing this as not all bootloaders are created equal and bootloaders are often device specific, so just keep that in mind.

      Now I am an Android geek don’t get me wrong, but like I said before, I try to stay away from giving advice when it comes to doing things like this. So my advice, if you’re not sure how to do this yourself, is to do some research on Google’s search engine. There are many, many, forums online about rooting, flashing, custom ROMs, and bootloaders where you should be able to find the proper resolution for your issue now that you know what’s causing it.

      I hope that helps at least a little bit Sanjay, if there is anything else I might be able to assist you with feel free to let me know.

      1. Thanks, it worked!

        Hey James,

        You are a hell of a guy and true helper mate. I retried unlocking the bootloader and
        that was the fix. Issue is fixed and good to go. Thanks heaps cheers.

        Sanjay

        1. I am glad that it worked. I thought it might.

          Thank you Sanjay for letting me know that you were able to get your phone off of the HTC screen by re-unlocking the phones bootloader. It turned out to be a hiccup after all, I am glad it helped.

          If you ever need any more assistance with your phone don’t hesitate to come back to the site and ask. Otherwise enjoy your working phone my friend.

  19. Mine shows a this build is for developers only.
    It boots up just fine, but before it does it shows the screen as if I’m booting in to TWRP recovery. Will this help?

  20. power button won’t work
    Hi I had this exact problem with my htc one. It was completely out of the blue my phone just kept restarting every few seconds. I called them up and they said to perform a factory reset, I tried it but it made little difference as it just carried on restarting. I let the battery drain out and then charged it. It took a while to get it to start charging but once it did I managed to switch on the phone and I noticed that the screen kept flickering. I put it in rice as I read that it absorbs water this worked and the screen is working normally.

    However, the on/off button does not work. Right now the only way I can get into my phone is if I stick the charger in. How do I fix this?

    I also read about an app that fixes the on/off button by basically using a different button to switch the phone on. Does this app work

  21. HTC phone vibrates 5 or 6 times after trying the recovery
    Hi! My HTC phone vibrates 5 or 6 times after “a black screen popped up showing a sync icon (2 green arrows forming a circle and an arrow pointing down in the middle of that circle)”. The red exclamation mark didn’t show up. It just vibrated and the screen turned totally black. Please help! What should I do?

  22. htc one mini
    hi greetings i am so sad and disappointed with my handset htc mini because my digital keyboard disappeared and i restarted my tel not knowing that it wouldn’t go on again to its normal state. now i face a phone that is not fast booting or just booting no recovery no factory restart no nothing. it just shows me this menu with the options i just typed and 3 android figures on top of a skate board each one pleaseeeee i am begging for helpppppppp my tel is 3 month old never thought htc one mini was so bad please assist since i am in lagos nigeria and they sale the handset but surprise no technical center….

    1. Three Androids on Skateboards

      Hi Andres,

      Sorry to hear that your HTC Mini is having issues. Those three Androids on skateboards can appear on a couple screens. Can you describe the exact screen that you are getting stuck on in a little more detail? Does your HTC just show the three Androids on the bottom of the screen with nothing else? Or does it have text as well? If it does have any information such as text let me know what is says so I can narrow down possible choices and have a slightly better understanding of what you are looking at.

      Just for good measure… try the hard reset one more time by powering off your phone, making sure that its unplugged from a charger, and while the phone is powered off you need to press and hold the Volume Down button and then press and hold the Power key as well.

      When the three Android images appear you can release the buttons. You SHOULD have a factory reset option, and you should be able to press the Volume Down key to highlight it and then the Power button to select it. This should reset the phone and with any luck get it to power on properly.

      If this doesn’t work, then call HTC and ask if you have any warranty options. I am not sure of HTC’s warranty policies or conditions outside of the U.S. but you might still be able to send it in for repair. In which case they will likely flash the unit, reload the software, check to make sure that the phone is working properly, and then mail it back to you.

      As a LAST resort you can try to reload the software yourself through a PC. If you do some searching online I am sure that you would be able to find plenty of articles with step-by-step instructions on how to root and flash the cell phone yourself. It can be a little technical so make sure that you follow ALL of the instructions carefully in order to do it properly but as long as an Android phone will still power on to some extent then there is hope of fixing it.

      1. Thank you sir

        Thank you sir for the quick reply. I will try it for sure best regards take care thanks again.

  23. HTC One still freezing at the HTC logo with White Screen
    I have done everything that prescribed above, with the exception of sending it off or going to the company (verizon). It still brings me right back to the same screen with the HTC logo and freezing. I have tried the recovery fastboot and factory reset, all to no avail. I didn’t get an update or anything. My phone died last night and has been on the fritz since I charged it. PLEASE HELP!!!

    1. Trying to fix an HTC One that’s stuck on the HTC logo

      Hi Kyle,

      I tried to include all of the standard troubleshooting that the average person can use to try and fix an HTC cell phone stuck on the HTC logo. This issue can be extremely annoying and difficult to fix and there is another option available but it’s a little more technical. If you have tried all of the troubleshooting suggestions listed above then I still recommend looking into your warranty options if available.

      Since your phone is at least trying to start and it’s just getting stuck it means that the problem is almost certainly software related and you can try to Flash the phone yourself which will likely fix it as it re-loads the software back to the phone replacing the malfunctioning software with a clean and functional version. This should hold true to a custom version or factory stock version of software.

      This can be a little technical but by doing some research online I am sure that you can find step-by-step instructions on how to flash a custom ROM onto your smartphone; especially on the HTC One as that is a pretty popular cell phone.

      In fact… now that I am thinking about it, look into unlocking and then relocking your Bootloader first before messing with the ROM. From your detailed description I know that you didn’t initiate a software update but your Bootloader is what tells your phone how to boot and load up properly. If it’s not working correctly then this exact issue occurs.

      Make sure to review the other comments posted on this article as I talk about this in more detail when responding to a few other readers.

      I wish you luck Kyle, don’t forget to come back to the site and let us know what you ended up trying and of course if it was able to get your HTC to load up past the HTC logo or not. I think it should help if done properly though so I hope to hear back from you soon.

  24. HTC cycling on startup sceens
    Fixed my daughter’s phone. Excellent advice. Had to go all the way to the factory reset. Good easy to follow advice. Thank you.

  25. Holy cow, thanks a million!
    Go figure this is my first smart phone, so I was shocked to see it jam after only having it for 2 months! I took a photo w/ the phone’s original camera app and it froze for practically an hour before I read your suggestions. Thanks SO much, as I need to alarm for work tomorrow. Lets hope this doesn’t happen again, but yay that you know about your electronics. Thanks again!

  26. HTC1 stuck on logo screen
    My htc1 stuck on logo screen, and i can’t even turn off phone, keep charging..i tried to reboot didnt work, i tried to do recovery didnt work….only thing is to factory reset which i can’t scroll down to that..
    >>fastboot,>>> recovery (here i can’t scorll down to factory rest once the cursory comes on recovery phone restart itself…..i m lost don’t know what to do….my warranty is over and no xtnd warnty..
    factory reset >>>not reachable through volume bar.

  27. THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH
    Thank you guys and i hope to keep up the good work i love all of you and you don’t know how grateful am i right now i am crying .. :X thank you and all the people all over the world who like helping others

  28. my htc one
    its not moving from the htc one page and i can turn it off but it turns its self back on and goes back to the page what it started with please help

  29. My Htc amaze 4g is stuck on
    My Htc amaze 4g is stuck on the htc white screen. Tried all of the above steps. It wont change anything. It wont even factory reset, just hangs there too.

  30. I have issues with my HTC
    I have issues with my HTC sensation z710e, I can’t flash anything on my phone, I’m always seeing ” can’t open cache” and after I try flashing something, it would say installation aborted, e signature verification failed, I tried using Rom manager to flash cwm, and I bricked it, it said I’ve successfully flashed it, but when I boot into hboot, and I enter into recovery in that hboot, it would just boot itself into fast boot, which means I can no longer boot into recovery again, there’s nothing like recovery again, and ANYTIME I TRY CHARGING MY PHONE WHILE IT’S OFF, IT WOULD BOOT ITSELF INTO FAST BOOT, meaning that I can no longer charge my phone while its off, only if I put on the phone before it can charge normal, pls can you help me with this?

    1. Software customization can lead to some hard to resolve problems

      Hello Joshua,

      While Android phones offer a wonderfully open source and customizable environment for their owners I myself don’t really dabble in software customization as it can lead to some difficult to resolve software related issues like the one your phone is currently experiencing.

      One of the great things about Android devices is that it can be difficult to truly brick an Android phone to the point where its software cannot be fixed or repaired (possible but difficult). So that’s the good news.

      The bad news is that while I am familiar with the Android Operating System and flashing a phone can help to resolve serious software related issues (like getting stuck on the HTC startup screen, which could point to an issue with the phones bootloader which is a piece of software that tells the phone how to turn on properly) I try not to give advice on flashing, rooting, and especially concerning software related problems that can occur when or after trying to manipulate or customize the software on an Android smartphone.

      If you cannot reload or flash a fresh copy of software to your device then repairing your HTC is going to be a real challenge.

      You are on the right track my friend but this website is targeted towards software issues that can occur through daily use and typically when using stock versions of Android released and maintained by the phones manufacture. As such I recommend that that you continue to search online for the best solution for your situation, and would like to suggest visiting and posting on web forums which rooting, flashing, and software customization is the primary subject or topic of the website.

      There are many members of these types of forums with a passion for the Android OS who would be far better and more qualified to answer your inquiry than I am.

      Sorry I couldn’t be of more help Joshua. I wish you the best of luck though and hope that you can get your HTC Sensation up and running properly again.

  31. Still stuck on white htc logo
    I did everything u suggested and my htc is still stuck on the white htc logo. What should i do? Did the hard reset and factory reset a couple times already still it didn’t fix it.

  32. Htc frozen screen
    Hey , I have a htc desire 300 and its stuck on the htc screen but the problem is I brought the phone out right and its a pre paid so I don’t know if I have warranty . I have tried everything and its still not working but I don’t know if my contacts are backed up to my gmail ( I kinda forgot the password ) I have easily over 300 contacts so I really want to get them back please help I’m freaking out my phone gets stuck on the screen for over 6 hours at a time and I don’t know what to do .

    1. Trying to fix your frozen HTC Desire 300

      Hi Tiarnee,

      Your cell phone should still come with a manufactures warranty (even if it is prepaid), so make sure to call HTC and check into your warranty options if your cell phone is still less than a year old and has no signs of damage.

      If you have access to a computer than you can check to see whether or not your contacts are backed up to your primary Google account and you can look into resetting the password as well if you cannot remember it. Simply visit https://www.google.com/contacts. Have you ever saved a copy of your cell phones contacts to a memory card (if not then once everything gets sorted out try to get into a habit of doing this as it can be a real time saver later.

      I hope that helps Tiarnee, I wish you the best of luck and if there is anything else that I can do to try and help than just let me know.

  33. Stuck in htc logo after updating
    My HTC One M7 is stuck after updating.. I tried recovery, fastboot, factory reset, reboot and wipe cache partition but nothing works. Its still stuck.. my phone says

    ***LOCKED***
    M7_UL PVT SHIP S-ON RH
    HBOOT-1.57.0000
    RADIO-4T.29.3218.08
    OpenDSP-v32.120.274.0909
    OS-6.09.401.10
    eMMC-boot 204MB
    Oct 17 2014, 12:30:25.0

    Please help me.. what should I do?

    1. Trying to fix an HTC that gets stuck after updating

      Hello Gaa-ra,

      It sounds like the installation did not complete successfully and the software that your HTC uses to function properly is messed up. This is especially true if you were trying to update your cell phone by installing custom software to the device but something like this can also happen during a standard update if the installation doesn’t successfully complete for whatever reason.

      It sounds like you have pretty much attempted everything that you can do except for trying to reload the software to the device and starting over from scratch. Look up instructions online and you should be able to flash either the most up to date stock software from HTC or even some custom software to our cell phone using a tool like the Odin Flash Tool. This should replace the malfunctioning software on your HTC with functioning software and allow your phone to work properly again.

  34. After all the steps of trying
    After all the steps of trying ‘recovery’ at my htc,when i reach to a syn icon (2green arrows forming a circle and an arrow pointing down in the middle of that circle) after few seconds myphone become black/blank screen and vibrate 3times there after nothing heppening,the stage where the picture of a phone with a red exclamation mark inside does not reach that stage.

  35. My HTC One is stuck in a restart loop.
    Hi, my HTC One is stuck in a restart loop. I tried all the methods stated above and it does work but after a few hours the problem comes back. Is it a problem with the software?

    1. It could be a software or hardware issue

      Hello Svan,

      Sorry to hear that your HTC One is giving you so much trouble. It could be a software or hardware issue.

      If your HTC One has a memory card (I’m not sure which HTC One you have) try powering off your cell phone and removing the SD card for a while to see if the problem continues. It’s pretty rare but I have seen where a defective or malfunction memory card or memory card port was causing such sporadic and definitely annoying behavior.

      You said that you have already tried all of the suggestions listed above which means that you did perform an Alternate reset and it turned out to be ineffective at resolving your particular problem. A hard reset should have resolved the problem if this issue was being caused by a typical software problem. If a factory data reset didn’t seem to help (which you said it didn’t) then there might be something that’s getting re-added to the phone after the reset. Make sure to try using your phone as a clean installation for a while before re-downloading any of your third party apps that didn’t originally come with the phone.

      There is a slight chance that this may be a more serious software problem as well, such as an issue with the Operating System itself. I am not sure why the phone would work at all, be it briefly, if it was an issue with the phones Operating System but I feel like I should mention this just for good measure. If it is a more serious software problem then you have a really good chance at fixing it by re-flashing the OS with a tool like Odin.

      This issue, especially your specific issue, can be really difficult to try to resolve. Hopefully this will give you an edge in resolving this problem with your phone. If you continue to have issues though you might need to look into possible replacement options… This issue should be covered under the manufactures warranty at no cost to yourself; assuming that your cell phone is still covered under warranty of course.

  36. Device not booting
    My Samsung galaxy s4 zoom is not working at the boot .It gets stuck at the Samsung logo. I’ve tried the steps given above but still it’s not working. Please help me!!!

    1. HTC vs. Samsung

      Hey Rithik,

      This page was written for smartphones that are stuck on the HTC logo not the Samsung logo. Check out THIS article instead as you might have a few other options available for a Samsung smartphone that wouldn’t be available for an HTC cell phone.

  37. Thanx a MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):):)
    Hey there! You just saved me from the “White Screen of Death”. I simply can NOT say thank you enough. Also, your article was so well written with a blend of humor, it gave me a sense of peace as I went through it. The super plus is that my htc was revived! Many many many thanks :):):):):):)

  38. HTC One (M7) not starting
    Good afternoon,

    Yesterday morning, after checking an email, my phone turned itself off and restarted. It then got stuck in the start up loop. It was turned off and since then has not been able to receive a charge. There are lots of family and traveling photographs stored on the phone and I am so disappointed to think that they will be lost.

    Can you suggest any alternatives to the hold power +volume combinations already discussed? It is currently on charge at my desk, with no red LED.

    Any thoughts/suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

  39. I have issue for my htc one
    My htc is keep on auto restart and stuck on a frozen white screen please help me to solve it

  40. Please Help
    Hi. First off, THANK YOU for this great site, for it helped me with my previous bootloop issue. However, it has happened again and this time I can’t get out. I have a One X so I can’t pull the battery and I can’t exactly ‘power it off’ from the black screen with the phone and the red ‘!’ and triangle. When I hold the power button, the screen just goes black for a few seconds and then it goes into the loop again. I really don’t want to have to do a Factory Reset. Can you please help? Thank you so much.

  41. Can’t hard reset / factory restore
    Whatever method I use for trying to factory restore my HTC One X+, it gets stuck on the white screen with the HTC logo. Any solution for this?

  42. htc one mini m8 is in a loop
    When i turn my htc on it goes to my home page but keeps flickering to a black page i cannot touch anything on my screen and i try and reset it but it doesnt even come up with the reset screen

  43. Please help!!!
    First off what a great detailed piece you have wrote here. Touche’ sir :). I have a Droid htc dna and recently I took my 3 year old on vacation to Disney and a few other parks. I took tons of great photos however the next day my phone started cycling through the loop of shutting off and turning on and won’t stop. It won’t even turn on if not on charger. I have taken it to the store where I purchased it and there was nothing they could do. I now have a different newish phone but I am devastated about my photos of my son’s vacation being gone. I do not have the cloud and they didn’t save to my Gmail account. Any ideas about what I can do to save and recover these photos from my non working phone. Again I am not trying to fix or save this phone, just the pictures. Any help would be great 🙂

    1. Trying to salvage your phones camera photos

      Hi Meghan,

      If those photos are all saved to the phones internal storage then you’re going to need to get your phone to power on properly in order to access those photos and as you already know this problem can be hard to fix. A hard reset is typically a step in trying to troubleshoot it but that will erase the photos permanently.

      Rock meet hard place.

      If it is possible to save those photos then it’s going to be difficult but from a technical standpoint I suppose that there is a slight possibility of recovery…

      Ok if I HAD to have those photos and I could not get my phone to boot up properly then my first goal would be to get the phone to power on properly. Then if needs be I would attempt to recover any erased or deleted photos that may have been lost during the troubleshooting. So, basically all of the suggestions listed above except I would try holding off on the hard reset for the time being…

      Since there is a really good chance that this is the result of a software problem I would try to re-flash the phones software… perhaps starting with the Bootloader and if that doesn’t work then the ROM and then the whole OS if necessary. I have not had to do this in a while but with some research and finesse you should be able to flash an Android factory image (the software that allows the phone to run properly) without erasing the user data on the phone. Which if done correctly would allow the phone to turn on properly and allow you to have access to those photos and then transfer those photos to your new phone though a PC or memory card etc.

  44. HTC going between white screen and battery with green arrow
    Hi,

    The last two updates from HTC have been causing my phone to freeze and automatically restart. Tonight it froze and when it went to restart, it froze on the white screen. Hitting the volume down and power button and trying to reboot just ended up with loads of error messages. I had to do a hard reset on my phone which was stuck on the white screen. The phone is cycling through white screen and an image of a battery with a green arrow. There is a bar underneath it which is not changing in anyway. Any advice?

  45. White Screen of Death
    Hey Friend,

    I’m receiving the white screen of death and can’t turn me phone completely on!! It tried your step process in which I performed a “Factory Reset”and it worked but the next day it turned off and wouldn’t turn back on. Now I’m trying your steps again but it’s not working this time. 🙁

    1. Yeah… for the most part

      Hi Khen,

      Yeah the information listed above can be applied to most Android devices, which includes cheep fakes or copies (just so long as that phone/clone is running on the Android operating system). If your phone is stuck and wont power on properly then you may want to refer to this guide on how to troubleshoot a phone that’s stuck in a boot loop or that won’t turn on properly. You might find a few other suggestions that you can use to try and fix your cell phone.  

      1. Before the problem
        The phone already has a problem.. like it has only minutes of life even if unused.. what I mean sir, is even though the phone is fully charged if left to sleep, even when not doing anything, the battery life becomes less and less.. and before the problem occurred, my cousin played and played games or something while charging and the phone would keep on restarting.. then finally this problem occurred.. it wouldn’t continue booting.. it just freezes at the logo.. I don’t know what happened.. its not even my phone.. I am just a little concerned 🙂 🙂 🙂

        Anyways sir.. if you think its the battery… why does the phone restart? Your solution is the only way and I haven’t tried it yet because I wanted to ask you first sir 🙂 I think its over heating too.. hahaha.. so sir, based in what I said.. what is your conclusion? By the way thanks for everything sir.. and so updated.. 🙂 you manage to reply within 24hrs. I am so grateful 🙂

        1. Battery vs. Software

          Hi again Khen,

          While the battery may be the reason why your phone is not holding a charge for very long I do not think that the battery is the cause of your phone getting frozen on its startup logo. It’s likely a software problem, and a tough one to solve at that. Make sure to follow the advice listed in the article above as well as the suggestions listed in the guide that I linked to earlier in my reply to your original comment.

          As far as the overheating… that can be caused by a few things as well. I would concentrate on resolving the current problem of your phone getting stuck on its startup logo first and hopefully that will help solve the overheating issue as well. If not then you can refer to some of the suggestions listed at how to try and fix a cell phone that’s overheating as well.

  46. I updated my HTC One X and it kept rebooting
    Hi James,

    I recently got an hTC One X and it was perfect. I got a notification on it which said that I should update my phone’s android version. So I updated it. My phone powered off and then it started to update. When the updates installation bar was complete it powered off and then it kept rebooting. It keeps rebooting to the start screen where it says “HTC One X quietly brilliant”. It never went back to the home screen.

    I tried pressing the power and volume down button to open the menu. When the menu opened I tried all the recovery, fastboot, and factory reset options but it still didn’t work. It keeps rebooting until it’s battery gets drained. I have tried all your suggestions but it doesn’t work. And I can’t use the warranty because I’ll have to go back to Dubai where I bought it.

    P.S: It has an irremovable battery.

    1. That sounds like a bad software installation

      Hello Asfand,

      From your description it sounds like the new Android Operating System didn’t install properly for whatever reason and you might have to reinstall it (or install another version of software) in order to replace your currently malfunctioning software with a working copy which should allow your HTC One X to boot up correctly again.

      I talk about this in more detail HERE so don’t hesitate to read up about your specific problem and how you might be able to resolve it on that guide. Good luck my friend, as you already know that issue can be a real stubborn problem to try and fix.

  47. HTC One mini boot loop
    Hi 007,

    Many thanks for your well written article(s). I stumbled upon your site while searching for an answer for a problem with my HTC One mini (first gen). I am hoping you have the time to read my following issue.

    While cycling in the rain today, my phone got wet in my pocket (it never fell in any water). However, when arriving home it continued working for a bit and then suddenly started rebooting in this endless boot loop. Since it kept functioning in the beginning, I didn’t immediately think of blow drying the phone or any other solutions to get any water that might have gotten in out. (the phone has gotten a bit wet due to rain before without any problems).

    Which means I am now facing an endless boot loop which you have described in this and another article. When the phone has enough power or is being charged, it keeps booting to the HTC logo screen with the ‘powered by android’ logo on the bottom, but not the HTC One screen.

    I already knew of the fastboot screen, so I started holding the volume down and power buttons. Occasionally (more luck then anything else, or split-second timing), it gets me to the fastboot screen, but when I try to get select recovery or factory reset, the phone reboots again before I can select either one of those or other options.

    My biggest fear is that water indeed has reached the motherboard and that it is fried. However, before making such conclusions I want to make sure there isn’t another option to save my phone.
    I am still hoping I can select the hard recovery option on the fastboot screen before the phone reboots again. Also, I’m keeping it charged for a day or two hoping something magical will happen or that any moist will be gone.

    Things the phone is still able to do:
    – Slow flickering red led when I start charging while on low power
    – Sometimes the display shows the charging screen with empty battery and 1% in it
    – Flickering home buttons
    – Boot screen (HTC and powered by android logo)
    – Occasionaly the Fastboot screen, reacts on holding volume down and up buttons but never enough time to select one of those options.

    Many thanks in advance for reading this way too long post, and I’m hoping you will be able to shine your bright light upon my humble One mini.

    1. Trying to fix your HTC One Mini

      Hello 006,

      Or should I call you Trevelyan? Alec Trevelyan… ~006’s given name was Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond universe for us James Bond fans who might be reading this post~…

      Let me start out by saying that I love long and detailed posts like yours. It helps take the guess work out of things. So thank you for taking the time to provide these details and for letting me know exactly what the circumstances were that led up to your problem.

      If this started happening right after the phone was exposed to water then it’s very possible that enough moisture got into the phone to cause problems. As such this may not necessarily be a software related problem and you should consider following the advice listed HERE first. You might be able to use 99% isopropyl alcohol to fix your HTC One mini if this does turn out to be a hardware related problem (which is very plausible).

      If 99% isopropyl alcohol doesn’t seem to help (as I discuss in more detail in that article previously mentioned) then you should consider troubleshooting the phones software instead by using the advice described HERE.

      I have a feeling that your best bet is going to be to troubleshoot your phones hardware first and then if that doesn’t work (which I think it will) you can troubleshoot its software. It sounds like this was the result of your phone coming in contact with the water/moisture as opposed to a software related bug or glitch but both types of problems (hardware and software) are certainly possible.

      I hope this helps my friend. Sorry for such a delayed replay but I hope that you can still find this advice helpful and I want to still wish you and your phone the best of luck. Let me know if there is anything else that I can try and help you with.

      1. Thank you ever so much
        Dear James,

        Thank you ever so much for your nice e-mail and taking the time to respond to my question. I applaud you for still posting on your webpage, since I can imagine working on “Spectre” at the same time must be taking it’s toll. I also must admit that I’m quite surprised you are still spreading your HTC and Samsung knowledge around on this site, because I actually thought it was Sony who paid for your services.

        Speaking of HTC, my stealthy black and very secret agent like One mini is still alive (yay!). After two days of charging, which was probably also drying the moisture on the inside, I could get into the fastboot menu and actually do things this time around. Scared that it would instantly reboot again, I immediately opted for the nuclear option (not the lousy GoldenEye satellite one) and went for a factory reset. From that point, I mostly got my phone back working again.

        The first week it had some random reboots when the battery got below 60-50%. Ordered a new original HTC charger (Xenia lent mine but never returned it) and things got much more stable and better. I’m guessing the alternative non-HTC charger I was using couldn’t deliver a constant and satisfactory charge, so that definitely improved things. Now I can’t remember when it gotten into a reboot loop for the last time. However, if it will get wet again, I’m sure to check out the links you provided. Thanks for those.

        So all in all, I’m definitely a happy camper. Even to the point where I’m debating if I want to keep this phone for another year and not renew my contract with a new model. You must know, Janus isn’t too big a fan of the new larger screen models. And with MI6 already using Sony, I will try to keep away from the compact versions provided by that brand (even though they are waterproof…).

        Again, many thanks for your lengthy response, which will come in handy in the future or for other users. I could almost forgive you for dropping me from that radar tower.

        Kind regards, and all the best!

        Alec

        1. You’re welcome

          Thanks for the follow up Alec. It’s good to hear back from you; even better to hear that your phone is working properly again.

          Yes, Bond is certainly a Sony user. I wish I was paid by Sony… unfortunately I’m not. Helping others through this site is currently a hobby. No one pays me to do it and I do so in my free time. As I am sure you already know my loyalty is always to the mission and my humble readers.

          Remember that when it comes to tech sometimes you have to watch out and stay Onatopp of these things or you could wind up in a pretty tight situation. Don’t worry about Xenia though; she always did enjoy a good squeeze.

          I can imagine that Janus is kept as simple as possible but don’t feel too bad it would seem that the accountants are running MI6 these days as well. My last present from Q was a gun and a Radio. Not exactly Christmas is it?

          As far as dropping you from that radar tower… Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?

          Ha ha just kidding. To be honest my hand was still kind of hurt from getting stepped on earlier and I had a feeling that I couldn’t hold you for very long anyways so I just kind of owned it. Besides the fall didn’t even kill you and how was I supposed to know that the whole tower was going to explode and fall like that?

          All in all it seems that everything worked out for the best. Glad to hear about your phone Alec and remember a great man once said that “half of everything is luck” the other half “fate”. So enjoy your working cell phone and if your luck ever runs out and you ever need any help with it just let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

          Sincerely,

          Bond

          James Bond

  48. My HTC Desire VT (T328t) is stuck on its white screen logo
    After doing all of the steps mentioned above my HTC Desire VT (T328t) is still stuck on its white screen logo.

    1. Trying to fix your HTC Desire VT

      Hello Melese,

      Sorry to hear that your HTC Desire is having issues and does not want to boot up like it should.

      I wanted to let you know that I just rewrote and updated some of the steps and advice listed in the article above which you may find helpful if your smartphone is still experiencing this very annoying and frustrating problem. With any luck troubleshooting your phones software directly will allow you to fix your HTC Desire VT and get it to start up correctly again.

  49. Starting to panic with my intex aqua y2 pro…
    I accidentally started a hard reset through the android system recovery when my phone’s battery was low. It went off a few seconds after the erasing process started.. Now it hangs up on the “Hello Android” logo.

    Whenever I try the volume down+power key. It takes me to the recovery mode and I can choose the erase+reset option then it takes only 5 second to erase and then I choose to reboot and it hangs on the logo again..

    What can I do? I have not chosen the usb debugging option so I am unable to use adb..

  50. HTC D820n with no OS got stuck on the white HTC LOGO screen

    You’re doing a good job helping people out. Today is my first time in here.

    Please I need your help. Initially, I was sent a lollipop OTA update on my HTC Desire d820n (a51_ul). I tried installing it but it wouldn’t. I guess because I have rooted the phone. I used to use an app called Flashy to extract recovery.img from the firmware inside of the OTA zip file and install it for the OTA update to work but this time it didn’t. So I tried to find a way out of it and I’m not sure what I did in the twrp recovery but my phone wouldn’t boot to windows as usual anymore. It only goes into the bootloader after a few vibrations and restarting. Which I think is reasonable as its looking for a means to boot up. In a nut shell, what I finally did was to format the data using the twrp recovery tool and now I am left with NO OS INSTALLED. I tried to flash my HTC with the lollipop OTA update which was sent to me, renamed it 0PFJIMG and placed it in my SD card for the HBOOT to read it from the bootloader but it wouldn’t.

    I went online to ask for a twrp backup for the same HTC model and I got one. I had to copy the files in the twrp backup directory and tried to install the backup. After doing that I got a message that it was successfully restored and I should reboot. On rebooting, there was another problem which arose which was that my HTC desire would not boot and will only get stuck at the white screen with the HTC logo with ‘Powered by Android” beneath it and the phone stays there forever…

    Pressing the power button doesn’t do a thing unless I press the up volume button + power button for it to restart but the phone goes back and gets stuck on that screen again. The only way to restart the phone is via that method that I just mentioned. I can get to the bootloader via this means:  once the phone is restarting I can quickly press and hold the volume down button and it will boot into the bootloader. So I tried deleting the cache… system… internal storage and I even formatted the data over and over using the twrp tool.

    It shouldn’t have anything stopping it from booting up normally but it still goes back and gets stuck on the HTC logo with a white screen. Now my OTA lollipop renamed to OPJIMG works and it installed in that HBOOT mode which I have been looking for to install the zip OTA which told me to press power to reboot when it completed BUT it still gets stuck on that HTC LOGO screen.

    Please what else can I do to make my phone restart and boot normally without getting stuck on the White HTC LOGO screen? If I can get the phone to reboot normally and stop getting stuck on the HTC logo screen then I believe my OTA would install and boot up to windows and get my phone back to normal.

    Kindly come to my rescue please. I am so sick and tired of everything right now.

    My phones bootloader is unlocked, got S-ON and I can relock the bootloader. My Cid is HTC_J15 and the Model ID is OPFJ4000.

    Thanks so much. I await your swift response.

    1. Wow, what a stubborn phone you got there…

      Hi Orllarwhalley,

      It sounds like you have done quite a bit already to try and solve this issue yourself. Try not to get too frustrated as this issue can be one of the hardest things to try and fix on an Android.

      Out of curiosity have you tried relocking the bootloader to see if locking it will help and allow the phone to boot up properly? It does sound like there is a good possibility that the bootloader on your HTC might be at fault but there is no guarantee that it is the bootloader.

      Have you tinkered with your phones ROM at all?

      To be honest I’m not too familiar with TWRP but have you tried using CWM as well?

      Since this happened to your phone after trying to update its software this issue should be fixable… it’s just a matter of finding the cause and then resolving it. I have linked to it a few times already but if you have not already done so make sure to review this boot-loop troubleshooting guide for some additional suggestions for your specific problem. I think that you might find some of the advice listed on that page helpful and hopefully it will help to get your HTC Desire to boot up properly again.

      Good luck my friend.

      1. Problem Fixed.
        Thanks so much for your time and effort, I really appreciate it. I have been able to fix the problem.

        The twrp backup uploaded in xpa developer forum was the cause. There was 18 rar files that were meant to be joined to be one and extracted. When I joined the files installed on my computer, it actually joined and gave me a file 886mb in size. I saw that someone who posted a picture of what he got which was about 1.4gb in size and still having issues. After that I wondered why mine was much less then that so I decided to use another apk file on my other android phone which is a Droid Splitter to join the 18 files and it gave me about 1.54gb. At that point I knew that the former size I had gotten had corrupted the bootup which made it get stuck on the HTC logo. I immediately got all of the files that I needed complete. I went to the twrp restore and viola… I was good to go.

        Thanks to my IT computer knowledge. It has helped me not to give up on troubleshooting.. and to be able to get to the root cause of issues.

        Anyone with this issue can grab something from my explanation. I had to list this in detail for whoever might find themselves in my shoes.

        Thanks so much.

        I am still trying to get my lollipop ota update installed at the moment.

  51. Power button wont work
    I tried to follow the steps on my HTC One M7, but as soon as I get to my fastboot page the power button stops working. I can’t select the reboot or factory restart. This has been going on for 7 hours now, and I even left the phone off the charger, let it shut off, and then turned it on again but nothing worked. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  52. HTC white logo freezing on boot
    My phone is an HTC Desire 300 and I had the same issue. I tried all of the steps above for recovery, but it just wouldn’t load. So with a heavy heart and tears in my eyes I rebooted my phone and lost all of my data. But now after the factory reset, my phone sometimes hangs and restarts to the same stuck logo and I have to boot it again 2 or 3 times for it to start and put all of my details on it again. I’m trying to recover my data after booting it too, but why does this keep happening to my phone?

  53. Thanks A LOT!
    Thanks A LOT! I have had an HTC One V for about 2 years and I have never experienced problems like that. I was very afraid but you helped me. Continue the good work!

  54. My phone has been spinning for ages…
    Hi my phone has been spinning for ages and I don’t know what to do. I have removed the battery several times and it just gets stuck spinning for hours and hours.

  55. My phone is stuck on the start up screen
    Hello,

    The problem that I had was that I couldn’t switch on my screen at all even though there was half a charge left on the battery and I had used it 5 minutes before. I had to wait for the device to discharge… Then it took me two days to see any movement. I wasn’t able to switch my phone on at all.

    Then I tried again and it always got stuck on the white start up screen.
    I had to reset it to factory settings and finally it started up normally. As soon as I restarted the phone it it went back to the white screen again so I had to reset it to factory setting again. And now I can’t restart it or switch it off as it would do the same thing again.

    Everything is working normally except the flash, my flash on my camera doesn’t work at all, also I can’t use the flash light and my screen won’t rotate on its side even though it’s allowed in settings…

    Any idea what can I do?

    My phone is an HTC One M8

    Thanks

    Barbara

  56. I have same problem too with
    I have the same problem too with the ‘quietly brilliant’. I tried a few times to hard reset my HTC but I just see that frozen screen with the logo and text ‘quietly brilliant’. I went to one of the big telecommunication companies in my country and they said that it might be something with the software but after a few days they called me and said that they couldn’t repair it and they don’t know what is causing the problem.. I am really mad because I like my phone and its like brand new.

    I think that I might have done something wrong when following your suggestions because there are people with the same phone and the same problem but they got theirs to work…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *