XPOSED - Recover from bootloop

xposed_recover-from-bootlop.md

XPOSED - Recover from bootloop

Tested with Lollipop and Marshmallow. Some file path had been changed since ICS/KK 1.

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When you activate an Xposed module and produces a bootloop, there are three options to recover it:

1. Restore a nandroid

2. Disable Xposed

3. Disable only problematic module

4. Disable Xposed

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Xposed framework has a self-feature to auto-disable it. It can be reached from command prompt (example: adb).

Just create empty file called disabled by typing:

touch /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/disabled

Simple "install zip from recovery" is also possible 2 -- thaks to AK1149.

3. Disable only problematic module

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You can also remove single module from recovery.

Active modules can be found at: /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/modules.list

Update: new file to do this trick at /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/enabled_modules.xml. Officially supported, no more UI drawbacks.

From adb you can:

adb pull /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/modules.list .
nano modules.list
# Delete problematic module's line
adb push modules.list /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/modules.list
# Check
adb shell
cat /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/modules.list

Notes

• If you do it from recovery, notice that data partition should be mounted.
• Regret edit files from Windows because it will include \r special character
• Git Bash (git-scm) do NOT work with adb because it modify paths.
• By editing modules.list, module is deactivate but retain Xposed Installer "tic", so you must deactivate and reactivate it again to synchronize data.

Bibliography

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Written by varribas using StackEdit.

A somewhat brute force way is to delete the "enabled_modules.xml" under data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/shared_prefs

That will disable ALL modules, but leave all the modules intact and the framework itself intact and loaded. Then you can boot and get back into Xposed installer to re-enable the modules one at a time.

Indeed @kschang77, you can also do this. At now enabled_modules.xml has been moved along modules.list. So it seems to be now the official and supported way to do it.

PS: when I used Xprivacy, disable it for a while was never an option. So any method that disables xposed of every modules is blacklisted for me.
adb + pull + nano/vim + push is not a big deal to do it as correct as possible.

@kschang77 Thank you for the suggestion. I tried deleting "enabled_modules.xml" but it didn't seem to disable the Xposed Module because I was still stuck in a loop of "Unfortunately, system ui has stopped" messages after enabling a few modules at the same time.

I then tried renaming the "modules.list" file to "modules.listt" (so it was unrecognizeable by the system) using TWRP's file manager and it worked. So I think that file is the money shot. I didn't have to factory reset and re flash my ROM, so thanks for the suggestions. The commands in adb might do the a similar thing, though. Not sure.

i changed name /conf/modules.list to modules.listt but didnt work so changed enabled_modules.xml to enabled_moduless.xml also didnt work out for me, then I have to disable xposed fully by creating file through terminal touch /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/disabled
Soruce : http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/xposed-lollipop-stuck-bootloop-t3055816

I think the updated file is /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/shared_prefs/enabled_modules.xml

Thanks for the guide!

You can safely uninstall a module without root, and without any special recovery image, simply with ADB in user mode:

In my case I was trying to uninstall GravityBox because it boot-looped after I activated image-blur for lock screen (wtf...) :

shell@konka92_wet_jb9:/ $ start servicemanager      
shell@konka92_wet_jb9:/ $ pm uninstall -k com.ceco.gm2.gravitybox              

Anyway, I think your fail-safe mechanism would be much much more useful if you looked for a file called something like "xposed.disabled" in the root of all partitions, so we don't need root privileges to be able to create it in case of an emergency. I lost many hours because of this...