How to recover a Lumia with a malfunctioning USB port

Recently, Microsoft has released Windows 10 Mobile build 14267 to Insiders in the Fast ring. This build’s availability is limited to the new Lumia lineup only + the Xiaomi Mi4. Even with this slim set of phones that are able to receive the update, a critical issue has been found. Users of the Lumia 550 and Lumia 650 devices are unable to charge them. As soon as these devices boot into Windows, the USB port stops working.

Microsoft hasn’t provided any official solution for this as of now but we do have a tutorial for you on how to revert your device back to build 10586. It’s a little difficult but we believe every Insider should be able to follow it.

First off, you’ll want to take note of the Model and Code of your Lumia. This information can be found under the back cover, on the stripe of text next to the battery. (Example picture below)

Before you start following the tutorial, make sure you have Windows Device Recovery tool installed.

Now to begin the actual tutorial:

• Go to lumiafirmware.com
• In the first column select your Model, in the second column select your Code and then select the first available firmware in the 3rd column
• A new box with links to files should’ve appeared on the top of the site, proceed to download every single one of these files
• Once downloaded, make sure these files are not blocked by SmartScreen (you can check by going into the file’s properties, if it is blocked, just click Unblock and OK)
• Completely turn off your device and make sure it’s not connected to anything
• In case you are using 32-bit Windows, navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Care Suite\Windows Device Recovery Tool on your PC
• In case you are using 64-bit Windows, navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Care Suite\Windows Device Recovery Tool on your PC
• Open a command prompt in this folder: Shift + Right-click a blank space in the folder and click Open command window here
• Now we’ll prepare the command line for flashing the phone, take note of the folder you downloaded the firmware to and the name of the file that ends in .vpl, in this tutorial we’ll assume C:\Downloads is the firmware folder and RM1152_059X6N3.vpl is the .vpl name
• Enter this into the command prompt (the bold bit) thor2 -mode vpl -vplfile “C:\Downloads\RM1152_059X6N3.vpl” -reboot and hit the Enter key on your keyboard
• After you hit Enter, connect your device to your PC
• Your device will now flash, once it reboots (after a brief flash of the green color on the device’s screen) it means that the flash has finished and that it’s safe to disconnect it

That’s it. Your Lumia should be on the same screen as when you have to set it up for the first time. 🙂