[Q] ?'s about backing up phone. - General Questions and Answers

So I have managed to flash several different roms and feel good about that. I think I am going to use the one I am using now. But when I do flash back to a previous rom all my user data is gone. for example contacts and stuff like that. Is there a way i can backup everything on my phone so that if i flash a rom i don't like i can go back. I use rom manager and I think this is how you do it, but just need some advice. Also when I make a backup can i copy and paste it, then put it on my desktop just incase i have to use it again? If I choose this method of saving my backups, would i just boot into revovery if ever needed? Sorry this is long winded but I am just tired of having to tired of having to go and fetch my contacts.

I've been reading a lot on this site, but would also like to know if it's possible to port data between rom installs. Particularly contacts, apps installed & text messages. is it simply a matter of restoring a portion of an previously back-up rom?
And yes, i think you can move stuff to your desktop as that's what I've been doing. I keep a copy of the stock EVO/Sprint rom on my SD card as well as the latest Cyanogen rom (with wimax) in case other roms don't work out.
Slowly but surely I'll get this.

Related

All this wiping, how do you people keep your data

i'm reading through all the posts for people updating to the new firmware and wiping away all their data without a care. how can you afford to do that so easily?
I have lots of data like SMS messages I need to keep around, applications that cant be downloaded anymore (such as hello aim beta, wifi tether), settings, etc.. that I just can't wipe my phone. how are you people keeping this data around?
I personally use apps to Sd card and to backup sms and such I use MyBackup Pro available on market for about $5. It works great. Go try it. You can even back up applications with it.
John5788 said:
i'm reading through all the posts for people updating to the new firmware and wiping away all their data without a care. how can you afford to do that so easily?
I have lots of data like SMS messages I need to keep around, applications that cant be downloaded anymore (such as hello aim beta, wifi tether), settings, etc.. that I just can't wipe my phone. how are you people keeping this data around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually will run a nandroid backup first then i can just flash it back without any trouble after the wipe.
I also have GSCRIPT on the phone and have a script that backs up all my apps to the SD and then I have a SCRIPT that will reinstall all my APPS when it is all said and done if I need it for those times that I am unable to backup first.
John5788 said:
i'm reading through all the posts for people updating to the new firmware and wiping away all their data without a care. how can you afford to do that so easily?
I have lots of data like SMS messages I need to keep around, applications that cant be downloaded anymore (such as hello aim beta, wifi tether), settings, etc.. that I just can't wipe my phone. how are you people keeping this data around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always make a nandroid backup. As a matter of fact, I make a nandroid backup weekly or before I do anything drastic to my phone like delete all SMS or try something new. Nandroid backup process takes but 5 minutes. Most of the apps can be downloaded over again and most of SMS are of no importance. All my pics and audio and wallpapers are on SD, so that automatically gets moved.
If I ever need to reference to something, I just flash the nandroid backup, look up what I need and then flash back to the other nandroid backup etc. So far that is my game plan, but i've yet to do this as I've never really had the need to go back.
It is tedious process especially for the apps but I have kept a list and it isn't too bad.
there are other wifi tether programs that are probably better than what you had before.
anything and everything is out there apk wise, if you know where to look.
but, there are backup programs and since I don't use them (other than nandroid), hopefully someone can comment on them.
question, i can do a nandroid backup fine without any problems. i believe i am using jf1.42 recovery image, but lets say my phone bricks, whatever nandroid backed up for me, how do i install it back again? n00b question i know but ive searched around and havnt found that answer yet.
I haven't wiped my phone in over a month.
I use MyBackup Pro. Backs up all your Data, Apps, and settings. And, of course, I make a nandroid backup before I flash anything.
madunix said:
question, i can do a nandroid backup fine without any problems. i believe i am using jf1.42 recovery image, but lets say my phone bricks, whatever nandroid backed up for me, how do i install it back again? n00b question i know but ive searched around and havnt found that answer yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's a quick and easy explanation: http://androidcommunity.com/forums/168953-post6.html
I've tried the Nandroid back up, but for the life of me I can't get ADB working on my computer. Is there a script to run it through recovery mode or through the terminal emulator?
Thanks
Hi Aim beta is still available in the market (Is it different from hello AIM beta?) and wifi tether for root users is still available at google code. If there was a program that I wanted that was no longer available I would just back it up to SD before wiping. For SMS I use SMS backup. That way SMS streams are available all the time in my gmail (not that I consider my SMS messages all that important)
Settings take me a little while to get back but usually if I am wiping to put on a new ROM my workflow will change a bit so redoing settings from scratch is not a big deal.
Given that contacts calendar and mail are synced with gmail, wiping is less a concern for me than it was with WM. Reloading apps takes a bit of time but it is not a major effort since most things are either on the market or on my SD.
...what everyone else said.
Also, I use fastboot on the computer side (Windows XP) to get Nandroid's backups back on my phone. This only works if you have the engineering bootloader, though (the thing with the three skateboarding androids). First, you'll have to copy "boot.img," "data.img," and "system.img" to whatever folder fastboot's in. Open up your command prompt. The command line you use is this:
cd *whatever directory fastboot's in*
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash userdata data.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use nandroid and mybackup pro.
Heres a question for the ages. If i do a nandroid backup on say...JF's 1.5ADP and then update to Haykuros image, after a wipe, would i have a problem if i was to fastboot flash my data.img file? Would it cause problems? I have yet to try it.
Does mybackup pro back up paid apps?
I dont really care about my txt i mean i got alot of txt but nothing to much to be save..I use appmanger to save my .apk apps to sd. and contacts are sync to google so yeah thats all i do.
If you have apps to sd it's as easy as following any apps to sd tutorial. All your apps that are already on your sd card will pop right back into your phone. In case anyone didn't know this. I tried and found out that it worked. So PM me for more details. I can't do much right now. But I can let you know what commands to type in adb shell or terminal emu.
Using the apps to sd, once I set the links up, everything is back, although my protected apps show up as the .apk name as with a gear icon. I have to uninstall then re-install those. But I am looking around for ways to remedy that. I think I found one post, but haven't wiped since I found it.

[Q] Phone Backup

Hey Guys, I'm a little bit of a noob here. I have had my captivate for about 6 months now and I started to get a little frustrated with the way the Captivate was set up compared to my old HTC Hero. I didn't have to root the Hero and could do anything with it I wanted. With the captivate it was another story. I rooted the new Captivate and it has been a wild ride. I follow the forums to see what is available after having Super User installed. I have to say I went a little crazy into the exploration of what i can and cant do. I learned what I cant do the hard way and spent almost 3 day's having problems with odin3 one touch flasher. Once i got everything back running to factory settings I decided to just set up the phone the way I like it and updated the config. for example I added the root access and updated the settings.db file to allow 3rd party apk installs. I than also deleted the wealth of useless crap At&T Preloaded onto the OS such as the apps and the 20 AT&T contacts. Fortunately now my phone and layout is exactly to where I want it. Unfortunately now I am afraid to perform other root mods on the phone and have to re flash the original factory settings on it and have to set it up all over again. I am not much of a programmer but do know end user support very well and was hoping that there would be a way to create a backup of the root directory so that in case I brick my phone (happend twice when I tried to replace the launcher program) I can just flash my backup so that I don't have to install apps, configure settings, and adjust the layout all over again? I was thinking of creating an update.zip would do it that i could keep on my sd card and flash it from recovery.
Can Somebody please Help!!!
Thanks,
Jay
Generally speaking, unless you use the same ROM, it is a bad idea to restore system settings.
Check out Titanium Backup from the Market. It works really well at backing up apps, data, and system data. Be sure to get the donate version so you don't have to manually install every single app (huge time/effort saver). It won't give you an update.zip file, but if you reinstall it and point it at it's backup folder, it can restore all of your data with minimal effort.
If you are prone to bricking your phone, back it up to an external SD card by entering "/<external sd>/Titanium Backup" as the backup path, replacing <external sd> with the real path (it's different on 2.1 and 2.2 ROMs).
Good luck.
Thanks, I actually already have Titanium Backup lite and i backed it up using the batch Backup all user apps + System Data but have no idea how to restore these backups if my phone bricks. I dont necessarily want to flash the phone to try it out. Any chance you know of where i can find out a little bit more information on how to restore backups with this app?
I also have the ClockworkMod Recovery where i have backed up my phone to an SD card. It says during the process Backing up system, data, datadata and than generates an md5sum. After this the phone boots back up and I was wondering if recovering using ClockworkMod is the same as flashing an update.zip rom but instead of using the stock version? Also this app seems a lot easier to use at there is an option to reboot into recovery and select roms

[Q] Ringtones gone....

First post... let me itroduce myself first.
I'm Stu....I've been lurking here for years and finally unlocked my first phone!
I'm currently using the SideKick4g, and this foru was a HUGE help in the unlocking process. Thanks!!!
I think I may have gotten a little crazy with the deleting, however. Everything is running fine at this point other than when I try to change ring/notification settings. Trying to access things gives me a force close every time.
I'm guessing I deleted something crucial. Anybody know what it may have been and how I can go about fixing this and/or getting around the situation? Will a simple program such as ringdroid replace whatever I got rid of? Shold I just flash a custom ROM?
Thanks in advance guys!
Stu
Let me add that I rooted with SuperOneClick, and used RootExplorer for ditching my bloatware. Hope that helps a little!
Stu
What did you remove? Ringtones are stored in /system/media/, do they just not show up when trying to set it, or does something else happens? Are you missing your stock ringtones, or just your custom ones?
When I go to settings>sound...selecting eithr phone ringtone or notification ringtone causes my force close.
I think maybe I deleted my system/media thinking it was the stock media player
Not that I'm too bummed about it. The stock rings are all just crappy versions of the "T-jingle".
I'd just like to be able to change stuff up
Well, looks like you took a risk and it came back to bite you. Reflash your ROM and try again.
Well...there's where the problem lies. I've never flashed a ROM. I'm sure I can handle it....just never done it.
And if I do need to flash a new ROM anyways, I feel like I should just flash a custom ROM. The gingerclone looks pretty nice. Does this delete my original ROM all together in the process? Are custom ROMs free of bloat?
That will wipe everything, so you should make a backup beforehand. yes, custom roms are almost always free of bloat, GingerClonev2 is only 124MB, where the stock rom is over 200MB. There are a few issues we're still working out, but it's pretty steady. otherwise, Teddy is releasing an update to an older ROM sometime soon as well, so I'd be on the lookout for that.
Okay cool. I'm gonna do some quick research and figure out how to do this.
What's the best way to save my original ROM to my desktop on my computer?
I'm just worried about killing my phone completely at this point.....
If you have CWM, use the backup menu, which uses Nandroid to backup everything by dumping everything on your phone into images. This all dumps onto your SDcard in the clockworkmod folder.
You can't brick your phone using CWM, you can only do that using ODIN, and only if you're not following directions/being intentionally stupid
Okay cool....downloading ROM Manager right now. I'm sure I'll post back with a few questions shortly!
Once the CWM/ROM manager has backed everything up....i should be able to copy the backup to my desktop? same thing with installing a new ROM
? Desktop to SD card?
BAhhhhhh.
I clicked on backup current rom and sent it into recovery mode.
Sorry about my lack of knowhow. Hopefully this all helps some others as well.....
I guess my biggest questions right now.... how do I get my original rom to a folder on my desktop, and once I download gingerclone, how do i move that from my desktop to sd to running it?
Yeah, copy the clockworkmod folder from your sdcard to your desktop, that'll copy everything off. I wouldn't suggest Rom Manager, many people have problems with that CWM. Look in the Dev forum for the CWM thread, and use that one.
In recovery mode, there should be a backup and restore menu. use the backup option, and then copy the clockworkmod folder from your sdcard to your desktop. that's your backup.
Okay. I plugged in my phone to the computer, and dragged a copy of the entire clockworkmod folder to my desktop.
Gingerclone is downloaded. Drag it to my SD? anywhere specific? or just on it?
On my desktop now is: folder/download, .recoverychecpoint(1KB), .salted_hash(1KB), .settings(1KB), and .settings2(1KB)
This is my backup correct?
I lost rom manager/root explorer.
After clearing stuff out and rebooting...it rebooted to the original rom with none of my added apps.
Can't download anything either at this point.
HELP!
Download manager keeps stopping and forces closed.
I reboot into recovery...and my options are:
reboot system now
reinstall packages
delete all user data
delete cache data
If I try to reinstall packages, I get" E: failed to open /mnt/internal_sd/update.zip(no such file or directory)
E: signature verification failed.
I'm in over my head now. Anyone out there maybe wanna help walk me thorough this on AIM or google chat or anything?
Which rom did you flash?
I tried flashing yours....but nothing. It's on my SD card right now
It just boots up to the original sidekick home/os.
You probably need to reroot or another update. Zip
Edit: actually what it sounds like you did was something similiar to what i did with a samsung galaxy s i deleted a bunch of apps and the i did a data wipe and factory restore without flashing my custom firmware through cwm and when it factory resetted it was real buggy from all the missing apps so u will have to odin
Sent From My Rooted Sidekick 4g Using XDA app
I can get into download mode....but ODIN won't recognize my phone. ID:COM stays blank
Try installing the Galaxy S drivers?

Help With EVERYTHING

Well, I have a Samsung Galaxy S 4G from T-Mobile. I recently just started to get new apps, themes, and launchers. I saw the Holo Launcher and it seemed pretty good. I liked the whole "ICS" feel of it.
I looked at rooting and flashing ROMs, kernels, and modems. I just needed some help with some questions I had. So if you could help me, that would be great, because I'm a kind of paranoid person and I don't want to screw up my phone.
What is CWM? And do you have to install this onto the phone or is it already there?
How do you enter CWM on this particular phone?
Does it matter which way you root? Will the way you root impact other decisions you will have to make in the future for the phone? Or does it not matter? And what is the best and easiest way to root?
Is it possible to unbrick a phone?
When you have a flashed ROM on, what if you want to flash another ROM? Do you have to flash back to stock or can you just flash the new ROM?
In the Unofficial CM9 ROM, one of the steps say: "(Optional) Flash gapps-ics-20120429-signed.zip if you want the Market plus other Google apps." Do you have to do this with every ROM? And do you just flash it on the same way as a ROM? What is the process in this context?
How do you know what version your CWM is?
Finally, does anyone have a video tutorial that they could give me that is specific to the Unofficial CM9 ROM?
If you could answer any of these, thank you. I'm just a paranoid person when it comes to things like this.
Start here - this is our Wiki: http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_4G
Read it once, then read it again. That will answer most of your questions.
gapps isn't covered in the Wiki, but basically, as I understand it, for some legal reason the Google applications and some of their required libraries can't be distributed with CyanogenMod / AOKP and similar ROMs. As a result, they are packaged separately. There are different versions for GB and for ICS.
You don't need to install them, but you won't be able to access Play / Maps / GMail / Google Calendar / Google Contacts and the like without installing at least some of the zip. You do need to re-install it after every flash as they get installed in the "system" part of your phone, not the "user" part.
And one more thing. Where do the NANDroid Backups go? Do I need to put it on my computer or will it always be in my phone?
DevSun said:
And one more thing. Where do the NANDroid Backups go? Do I need to put it on my computer or will it always be in my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you make a Nandroid backup, it is saved in a folder called clockworkmod on your SD Card - something like sdcard>clockworkmod>backup. You should definitely also save a copy of that folder to your computer, just in case.
Okay, and also...
Do I always have to delete the data/cache when installing a ROM? And do you always have to do UMMU?
DevSun said:
Okay, and also...
Do I always have to delete the data/cache when installing a ROM? And do you always have to do UMMU?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Follow whatever directions the developers provide with their ROMs, and you'll be golden.

Rooted/Custom Rom'd my AT&T S4, now for some basic a

[Thread in wrong area! Mods please move to AT&T S4 under Q/A!]
I recently rooted/installed CleanROM for my S4, but now I have some basic questions regarding what actually happened in the process and how I could improve it. (First smartphone, first Android).
1. Is flashing the exact equivalent of installing a kernel/ROM/app in a recovery like TeamWin that is zipped in an SD card? All I did was select my zipped file and install--the guide says to use GooManager but I never used it. Also, does updating TWRP, kernel, or ROM (same application/kernel/ROM, but newer version) require that you delete the old ZIP, copy over the new ZIP, then install it? Is there a cleaner method (I feel that since we have to wipe to prevent old files from interfering with new ROM that maybe parts of the old version of a ROM may be redundant or may interfere with the new ROM?
2. Is there a way I can save the phone settings when dealing with one ROM and transferring these settings to another ROM? I really don't want to spend 20 minutes to go through all the settings and change it to my liking every time I install a new ROM.
3. With TWRP I could backup the entire ROM and also be able to install that backup ROM if I don't like the new ROM installed? What does Titanium Backup offer in regards to this aside from backing up app data and the ability freeze/uninstall system apps?
4. Does Titanium Backup leave any residual files? I see other apps designed to uninstall system apps and Titanium Backup seems like an all-in-one jack of all trades.
5. I thought I wiped everything and to me, that sounds like reformatting the entire drive. I only wiped system, boot, and data though (good enough for ROMs, according to what I've read). I was surprised when I saw my videos that I had already backed up to my PC accessible on the phone. Should I just wipe literally everything (I assume it would be cleaner) like cache, preload, EFS, modem, recovery, etc.? Will wiping literally everything be like reformatting my phone (since my phone was not reformatted because my personal videos was still there when I installed my custom ROM? If I were to install completely different ROMs cleanly and wanted to keep my personal files, I would only need to wipe system, data, and boot?
4. Do I have to use CASUAL again to install an updated TWRP?
5. Does backing up a ROM also backup its root? I'm going to assume this is a dumb question and the answer is no. I'm also guessing I have to block OTA updates from AT&T to ensure I keep my root. How would I go about doing this? Also, would my phone be "safe" if I stick to my ROM (no updates or anything) for 4+ years? I'm asking this as an extreme case because I feel like I'm missing out on AT&T security updates that could protect my phone and also I don't think the developer my ROM (CleanROM) will do frequent updates).
6. I had problems with my computer not being able to recognize my phone and my SD card in the phone after I wiped everything and before I installed a ROM. I literally had to take the SD card from the phone and use an SD card reader to transfer my custom ROM/loki then put it back into the phone. Was I missing a driver?
7. What are some must-have apps a newly rooted user would want?
8. I read that you only need 1 EFS backup and you don't need to back it up every time you are going to install a custom ROM. Can I get a confirmation?
9. What does Goo Manager do and would I want it?
10. Is it essential that I keep up to date with news about my custom ROM/phone to ensure my phone is secured?
**Not Root/ROM related--Is swiping an app away from the Recent Apps List (long-press home button) the equivalent of killing an app? I use the Recent Apps List often but I don't want to go about swiping apps away if means it is killing it, since I read that killing apps are bad and actually drains battery life. Also, is there a mod that lets you access the Recent Apps List by long-pressing the menu one? I only see a mod that kills the app if you long-press it.
Thanks. I'm hoping for many responses as I have more questions to ask but not a lot of free time (I will check back on this thread every several hours until there are no more responses on the thread.
I think you are in the wrong forum.
@work said:
I think you are in the wrong forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, I clicked the edit/delete thread but can't find the delete button. Under reason for editing I told the mods to move it to AT&T S4 under Q/A. I'm new to XDA, what should I do?
otumsel and
just wait,someone will be along and move it.

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