OK....I am in BIG TROUBLE !!! Although, my phone is working now, I'm terrified to do ANYTHING, because I don't know how I even got out of the loop that it was in.....I will try and keep this post minimal, but still give all the info I can....HOPEFULLY.....Someone can help me to at least know what direction to take??

This started by wanting Root. Used the proper VRUAME7 method. (Reformatted to exFAT, moved the few files to the SD, then via terminal emulator ran)...NO PROBLEM.
SO, Got Root Access without any issues at all. Tested it on many apps, etc.....NO PROBLEMS.

NOW THE ISSUES: I Really wanted CWR, as I've used in the past, but was willing to try TWRP....HERE WE GO...UGH.

From the same place I learned/got the root requirements (galaxys4root), using root explorer...Moved to proper locations, and then terminal emulator, etc...
WELL: Failure. Several times. Variety of reason, most apparent was that the Loki files..."Don't Match Device".

OK, for now leaving it at that, no CWR. I then read that Goo Manager can be used to install TWRP without any issues, and is actually the most simple process.

I followed the procedure to the letter. Opened up Goo.....Hit home, download recovery, etc......Then I got the small msg at the bottom that it was installed correctly!!

Then, according to the tutorial, hit "Reboot to Recover".

HERE IS WHERE THE TROUBLE BEGAN:

Well, it booted to the Android guy, saying "Downloading", don't turn off Target....(Sure you all are familiar w/ this screen.)....TOTALLY JAMMED IN THIS.

After letting it go ahead and sit at this for a long time, just in case, I hit power, it went to reboot, BUT, right back to that same spot...

I tried booting to Safe Mode, tried booting to "recover" by holding the proper buttons....NOTHING......STILL BACK TO THAT SAME.

WELL. Thinking I was screwed. I let it at this, opened up ODIN, put on the stock firmware file, plugged in the phone, it recognized, hit start. It went thru the progress bar, but then NOTHING......(Had reboot checked)....NOTHING. I let it sit there for a GOOD LONG TIME, just incase it was working thru something??

Eventually, realized, Nothing going on.....SO, disconnected....Rebooted...Right to that big-ole Android guy.....

NOW: it was up like that, and I was playing around, and from hitting the volume buttons FOR SOME REASON, I got the screen......: ? to continue.....? to cancel, and boot.....HIT THAT..

IT BOOTED LIKE NORMAL !!!!!!!! STILL ALL INTACT AS BEFORE, EVEN MAINTAINED ROOT.

NOW MY BIGGEST PROBLEM: I HAVE NO....AGAIN....NO RECOVERY....(NO Stock, No Custom, etc)...At the very beginning of the boot, the padlock is unlocked and it says custom.

Even if I try and hold down Vol.Up/Power for Stock recovery.....I DON'T have stock recovery, it just boots the phone.

I feel EXTREMELY LUCKY That I got it going.

I am VERY VERY tempted to continue w/ the Goo thing, and try to boot recovery from there?? BUT, TERRIFIED that I'll loop it again, and I was so lucky to get out of it the first time??

Can anyone at least give me a direction to go???

Sorry a bit long, but I like to make sure I give all the info.....

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH, and my very best.....

Spyder

Isnt that the latest update for the s4? I don't own one, but from what ive read in the past they still havent mansged to unlock the bootloader to allow custom recovery. You should be able to use odin to flash a stock version or a stock rooted version back on your s4 so at least youll have a recovery option. Anyone with an s4 got any thoughts?

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Im having the same problem but I realized if you pull the battery press down power and home at the same time wait on the vibration and let go of home it will give you an option to install custom os or cancel and reboot wbich is down I chose to reboot and it works every time but I have tried everything I can think of and im tired of pulling off my case and pulling the battery but I did find out I was doing the manual stock recovery wrong its let go of the power button not the home button but I havnt felt like trying it yet but I also herd the latest gooim is jacked up and im waiting on a new version to come out that might fix it wbere it will boot from the app into custom recovery

im not sure why that goo thing has the recovery option in it, there is no way that will work.
there is a bounty at xda (around $4-5k last i checked) for whoever figures out how to install a custom recovery. that's why i say no way on goo.
i think your best option would be to look around at xda and see if someone has pulled the stock recovery that you might be able to flash back on.

Bwen -
Is the s4 not like the note where you can flash stock or stock rooted through odin and get your stock recovery back?

Sorry im talkin out my backside but I was curious. Was thinking about trying to find a cheaper s4 to play with. If odin is a no go though then itd be useless to me. God knows id screw it up a few times before I accomplished what I wanted

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i actually don't know, that's why i referred him to xda. ive read a lot of post there lately and seen files posted in some threads, but not having any need for them, i didn't retain much of the info.
i don't recall seeing a true stock image, so im not sure what he was trying to flash, however i saw different parts (maybe even full images) pulled from phones and made flash-able then posted.
just seems to me he doesn't have the right files needed to fix his problem, and if there is no true stock image with recovery included, he may have to resort to just flashing whats broken (i though i saw recovery images posted in on of the help unlock bootloader threads, not positive though, the thread is 11 pages Need Help of Someone with Dev Edition S4 - xda-developers )

Wow they are really having a tough time with the s4 huh. I figured id aggravate you cause you usually have a pretty good idea whats going on. Thanks for the reply

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if they keep progressing the lock downs and branch it into other models, i think this will eventually put a huge dent in development for consumer edition phones. at some point, the vulnerabilities will get too hard to find, and some key people will stop looking for them. if you look back a few years up until now, in my opinion, development in general has been slowly declining because of the lock down progression.
at least we have the dev and google editions of some phones to fall back on, but its sad if it has to come to that.

Agreed. We pay for them. We should be able to do as we please. Even if it isnt covered once we make changes. But they shouldnt be trying so hard to keep us out. I dread seeing the dev community lising steam. If they quit, android os itself will take a huge hit

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So all in all anyone with this problem can basically just flash back to stock with odin which the way I understand it is the same as sbf and fxz and after that just reroot and forget custom recovery for the time being is this correct or did I miss something

Yes I believe so. I know it works that way for the note 2 (which its boot loader is unlocked so we can use custom recovery). But it should work the same way. Flash back to stock then reroot. I had to flash my note 2 back because of a boot loop. Itll cure just about anything

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Well I kept digging and I was told no and I was just stuck with out recovery for now so does anybody have any news on when that might be

Told no about what?

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Maybe no wasn't what he ment because I'm on stock now just no recovery or custom recovery but had I not installed goomi would I have still had my stock recovery or does everyone loose it when they take the new update and if a new ota comes out before a fix will we still be able to take it

Im not sure I quite understand. Did you flash back to stock? The new update should not take your stock recovery....have either of you actually tried flashing the complete stock package?

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I haven't tried anything really im just looking around for answers but I keep finding the same problem with other people but no real clear answers and I hate to do anything when my phone is working at this time but what I was wondering is there a sbf or fxz process we can take or is that the odin thing I keep seeing

Odin is the sbf procedure for samsungs. But you need the stock file or stock rooted file. It is the way I saved my note 2

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That's what I thought but I guess I wasnt making my self clear when I was explaining to that other guy so now I will try and find the files and give it a shot

Well any word yet 9n a custom recovery

So you didnt find/try flashing stock?

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