How can I reboot into recovery from fastboot?

Question

I have a phone that is bootlooping after a power failure + battery depletion during system encryption. How it got bricked isn't important here, the trouble is that I can't get into the recovery mode. Usually turning on the phone¹ via Volume Up+Power will enter recovery mode. I had TWRP flashed as the recovery and Lineage OS as the ROM. Now it does not respond to that keystroke.



Also generally one could boot to the system and run adb boot recovery, but with the system not booting that is not an option. I can however use Volume Down+Power to enter fastboot mode. I've tried reflashing the recovery image from fastboot, but it still does not respond to the key sequence. Using fastboot reboot tries to boot to the system. How can I get into recovery mode?



¹ In my case, a Levovo K6 Note/ K53a48 (karatep), but not really relevant to this question.


— Caleb | Sources

Answer

(Self answering here because I only found this answer after hours of dredging through 200 page threads of forum posts.)



There are two non-standard but semi-prevalent methods that may work depending on your make and model (and why recovery isn't working in the first place).




  1. Some phones actually respond to fastboot reboot recovery. This is quite natural given adb reboot recovery, but unfortunately is non-standard. I found lots of people suggesting this method so I offer it here in the hopes that it works for some, but it didn't for me.


  2. Some phones will actually let you book into an image via fastboot without flashing it. This will allow you to load a recovery image without needing to reboot the phone at all. You need a copy of the recovery image on your computer, but running fastboot boot image.img should do the trick. I was able to load up TWRP using this method.



— Caleb | Sources

Q & A

System storage is showing full even when it is not. So I can't install apk as system app
How to use Private DNS on Android Pie for tethering?
Is There A Mobile Hotspot App With A Firewall to Block Incoming Connections?
Phone stuck in bootloop and recovery not working
Opening an .apk on Android shows a file list instead of installing
I can't unlock bootloader on fly fron linux
How can you open a URI from the command line?
How to remove telegram's secondary account
DeX mode not starting after Android security update
Is Mozilla Firefox for Android, Fennec, using same Desktop Firefox "Quantum Engine"?
Pass through ODIN MODE
Should I get A1 or A2 spec'd Micro SD card for my phone?
Hacker's Keyboard is ignored now, it tells me I have to unlock the phone?
How to SSH into Android which is a hotspot?
Where does Havoc Os store update files?
How to make F-Droid hide data about incompatible packages?
Double tap to zoom on Pixel 3a chrome browser?
What does downloads mean in Google Play store app page?
Android OS Storage Usage
TWRP unable to wipe or format `Failed to mount '/system' (Device or resource busy)`

Topics

2D Engines   3D Engines   9-Patch   Action Bars   Activities   ADB   Advertisements   Analytics   Animations   ANR   AOP   API   APK   APT   Architecture   Audio   Autocomplete   Background Processing   Backward Compatibility   Badges   Bar Codes   Benchmarking   Bitmaps   Bluetooth   Blur Effects   Bread Crumbs   BRMS   Browser Extensions   Build Systems   Bundles   Buttons   Caching   Camera   Canvas   Cards   Carousels   Changelog   Checkboxes   Cloud Storages   Color Analysis   Color Pickers   Colors   Comet/Push   Compass Sensors   Conferences   Content Providers   Continuous Integration   Crash Reports   Credit Cards   Credits   CSV   Curl/Flip   Data Binding   Data Generators   Data Structures   Database   Database Browsers   Date &   Debugging   Decompilers   Deep Links   Dependency Injections   Design   Design Patterns   Dex   Dialogs   Distributed Computing   Distribution Platforms   Download Managers   Drawables   Emoji   Emulators   EPUB   Equalizers &   Event Buses   Exception Handling   Face Recognition   Feedback &   File System   File/Directory   Fingerprint   Floating Action   Fonts   Forms   Fragments   FRP   FSM   Functional Programming   Gamepads   Games   Geocaching   Gestures   GIF   Glow Pad   Gradle Plugins   Graphics   Grid Views   Highlighting   HTML   HTTP Mocking   Icons   IDE   IDE Plugins   Image Croppers   Image Loaders   Image Pickers   Image Processing   Image Views   Instrumentation   Intents   Job Schedulers   JSON   Keyboard   Kotlin   Layouts   Library Demos   List View   List Views   Localization   Location   Lock Patterns   Logcat   Logging   Mails   Maps   Markdown   Mathematics   Maven Plugins   MBaaS   Media   Menus   Messaging   MIME   Mobile Web   Native Image   Navigation   NDK   Networking   NFC   NoSQL   Number Pickers   OAuth   Object Mocking   OCR Engines   OpenGL   ORM   Other Pickers   Parallax List   Parcelables   Particle Systems   Password Inputs   PDF   Permissions   Physics Engines   Platforms   Plugin Frameworks   Preferences   Progress Indicators   ProGuard   Properties   Protocol Buffer   Pull To   Purchases   Push/Pull   QR Codes   Quick Return   Radio Buttons   Range Bars   Ratings   Recycler Views   Resources   REST   Ripple Effects   RSS   Screenshots   Scripting   Scroll Views   SDK   Search Inputs   Security   Sensors   Services   Showcase Views   Signatures   Sliding Panels   Snackbars   SOAP   Social Networks   Spannable   Spinners   Splash Screens   SSH   Static Analysis   Status Bars   Styling   SVG   System   Tags   Task Managers   TDD &   Template Engines   Testing   Testing Tools   Text Formatting   Text Views   Text Watchers   Text-to   Toasts   Toolkits For   Tools   Tooltips   Trainings   TV   Twitter   Updaters   USB   User Stories   Utils   Validation   Video   View Adapters   View Pagers   Views   Watch Face   Wearable Data   Wearables   Weather   Web Tools   Web Views   WebRTC   WebSockets   Wheel Widgets   Wi-Fi   Widgets   Windows   Wizards   XML   XMPP   YAML   ZIP Codes