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[Q] How do I modify my backup and restore manifest?

Hi xda,
Though my thread title may be a little vague and might supposedly be better asked on google or android per se, just patiently read along as I try to explain my dilemma in more detail.
For ICS users, we all know the convenience of the "backup & restore" feature. Everything from wifi passwords, contacts, and installed apps will be magically restored when you install a new firmware on your phone with a full data wipe. And for us flash junkies, that indeed is really convenient.
But even though I have come to love such feature, I've noticed a few quirks as I was using it over time. The backup manifest or shall I say, the list of backed up data gets cluttered as you continue to backup data over time. This leading to a point where my backup data is now so messed up, whenever it auto restores once again, I see previously uninstalled apps back again and duplicate contact entries. So messed up, that I've decided to stop using this much loved feature and just manually backup my contacts, and re-install apps.
So, I am looking for some solution that I might be somehow able to manually edit that current backed up list (over at google or wherever it's stored), and update which will be restored if ever I flash my phone again. Or wipe that list clean and overwrite it with my current phone state.
Sorry for the long post but I've done my googling and forum searching beforehand only to no avail.

You can forgo that feature entirely and use titanium backup instead, for backing up your personal app data...
Titanium acts a little twitchy when restoring system apps and data across roms with different bases...
Your best bet would be to backup your downloaded apps with titanium, backup contacts and msgs (and call logs) from other market apps (I use go backup)...
For bluetooth and wifi access points, I haven't found anything that is truly cross compatible among roms...so better of you just write it down somewhere and refer that later...
Typed using a small touchscreen

[Q] Possible to restore lost Titanium Backup for app?

That's a terrible title.
Anyways, I had to install Cyanogen from scratch the other day because my upgrade attempt failed. It's been a while since I've started fresh so I figured it was about time anyways. So, as I do in times like these, I have slowly been going through and restoring my apps and settings. There were a few that I did not get to last night, but started working on this morning.
And now I realize that Titanium Backup ran last night and since I it was only set to save one backup, I no longer have backups for the apps that I didn't get to last night! Usually TB doesn't start it's scheduled backups right away, in the past, I have had to go into the program and enable them again. I guess not anymore! So now I have many apps that don't have a good backup since they were not configured prior.
Did I loose anyone? I'm just a little flabbergasted right now and am a little pissed to be honest. One of the apps is a game that I actually spent REAL money on building up and now all progress is lost! I know it's just a game, but it was REAL money!
One more strange thing, I didn't bother restoring most apps last night anyways because usually it's just a log in and stuff is back to normal, so no big deal. But the ones that I did try to restore in TB, it didn't seem to work anyways. I still had to enter login information in for example.
It's all just kinda weird and I'm not sure what to make of this. My old ROM was Cyanogen 10 and the new one is the latest and greatest 11. I wonder if the backups are stored in a different place? But then why would TB appear to have found them and load the data? I don't know. This just doesn't make sense to me.
Any suggestions or ideas out there?

it sounds like you have old nandroids? there is an option in titanium backup that allows you to get app data from nandroid backups.
not sure if i answered your question, and you might already have knowledge of this, but if not it should solve your problem

Maphack said:
it sounds like you have old nandroids? there is an option in titanium backup that allows you to get app data from nandroid backups.
not sure if i answered your question, and you might already have knowledge of this, but if not it should solve your problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, thanks, I never noticed that before. However, I apparently made the backup with ROM Manager. Dang it...so close!!!

So, if you have a nandroid can't you just restore that nandroid (and thereby get your data back), then do a titanium backup to capture the data you want, then go through the whole thing again but do it right this time? Wouldn't that work?
Oh yeah, and copy the TiBu data to your SD card or computer as a safeguard too.

ned4spd8874 said:
Ah, thanks, I never noticed that before. However, I apparently made the backup with ROM Manager. Dang it...so close!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
shouldn't matter... i've been able to pull from both twrp and cwm i'm pretty sure...

rgrossie said:
So, if you have a nandroid can't you just restore that nandroid (and thereby get your data back), then do a titanium backup to capture the data you want, then go through the whole thing again but do it right this time? Wouldn't that work?
Oh yeah, and copy the TiBu data to your SD card or computer as a safeguard too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately no. I get the MD5 checksum mismatch error. It appears that I ran out of space on my SD card and didn't realize it when I made the backup. Hence, it's not a complete backup.
I was able to combine the 5 tar files into one tar last night. However it did freeze up when I tried extracting. I will play with it some more tonight when I get home.

[Q] Helium

Folks
I really need some help here.
I backed up my data using Helium, and cannot restore it at all. At this point I am primarily interested in whatsapp because I have a whole lot of messages there. I backed up my data to the internal SD card, copied the carbon folder, wiped my phone and put the carbon folder back. I have tried reading other threads of doing the PC download and copying my data over among other things, nothing works. I really need to get the data back, just for one app. Even tried opening the .ab file based on this: http://android.stackexchange.com/qu...ta-from-a-full-backup-made-through-adb-backup still no go. Tried to restore it from here, still no go. Please help!
What I really dont understand about Helium is if it does not support deleting and recopying the folder back on the phone, why even give an internal SD card option!! Apparently the paid version works great with dropbox et al. Itis just so damn frustrating to see an app that claims it works on internal SD, but the use case doesnt seem that useful unless all you want to do is restore the data without any kind of wipe. A warning would have been nice, clearly stating it atleast once considering the developer has put it on his wiki.
Thanks, sorry about the frustrated rant.

I'm sorry, I don't have an answer to your question.
Just wanted to say, titanium backup is known as the best for a reason. After you hopefully settle your issue....try it.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you either, but I had a very similar experience with that app about a year ago. It was the paid version and Dropbox/Google Drive restores were no more useful than what i had copied locally. Now I just use Titanium and command line adb.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Titanium Backup pro - not backing up data properly

Firstly I hope I'm posting in the right area if not I apologise in advance.
I am using a Samsung note 3 which was rooted with towelroot and TiBu was installed and working as far as I knew.
I have a couple of daily schedules one of which is "redo backups for modified data". History was set to 2
The other day I noticed that my calendar and a bunch of other apps had a last backup date which was over 3 weeks ago. Everything had the required 2 backups present but both old.
So I began a series of tests and found the following:
1) changing data on an app and picking this for test I manually tried to redo the data. It simply skipped past it.
2) I deleted one of the backups and it worked - strange as it warns when the history is at 2 that subsequent backups will overwrite the oldest.
3) I upped my history to 3 changed the data and tried the manual method and no backup.
In many other tests I have found the following:
1) no way ever will data be updated if the history is full - not a behaviour I was expecting when a normal backup or forced backup will overwrite perfectly.
2) 90% of the time modified data won't be updated. I had to go through hoops to make TiBu update - which involved making sure a history slot was empty, deleting one or all backups then doing a manual one then changing the data. It will work usually at this point but then won't do anymore.
I am totally stumped at this point and can't trust TiBu to keep my data up to date.
I am unsure how often the backups were actually being done because this discovery was my first time- before I just trusted it was being done. I would have liked to see for instance what happened before 4th Dec where my apps seemed to be backed up to. Some apps were as old as September but those seemed to be less used and perhaps never had data changes so I didn't worry about those.
I have another schedule for new user apps and newer versions but the data backups but a lot of the failed mod data apps were not part of this as they were not new or updated.
If anyone can help me find out what is going on or if perhaps I've misunderstood the behaviour of the modified data operation I'd be grateful. At the moment I am going to switch to force redo app backups but since |I am also syncing with dropbox this just makes multiple apks and data huge and the time it takes to do the backups is just massive.

Best way to backup

I usually use Google backup and Samsung backup and when switching to a new phone I backup and restore / smartswitch which works ok. A few days ago my phone did a hard reset I think because the incorrect pin was entered accidentally multiple times whilst the phone was in my bag (hard reset setting in this situation compulsory due to my security settings for my work email). Although most important things could be restored, things like my app settings, Email settings, Gboard, Nova etc all had old backups saved and so I have to spend a lot of time setting up each one again.
Is there a better way to have EVERYTHING backed up automatically so I can restore the phone to the exact way I left it if I lose my phone or have to hard reset without needing to spend so much time next time? I remember iPhone iOS was better years ago. Are there any other softwares available that do full back ups scheduled every week or daily?
Thanks

Not really unless you're rooted. A cloned copy be nice...
2 back to back boot loops and factory resets made me streamline my reloading process and the way I organize critical data and backups.
I use the SD card as a data drive then back it up redundantly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC.
Only the apps, DCIM and download folder go on internal memory. The DCIM folder is backup to a folder on the data manually that doesn't have the name DCIM in it's folders names.
I use apps like Digi clock, Poweramp and ColorNote (for bookmarks) that allow backup import/export and store those on the data drive. I use ApkExport to make installable copies of all my apps for fast reloads without Playstore. I store notes for the theme and icon pack as well for quick lookout on the Galaxy store. I can do a full reload from the SD card. Takes about 4 hours total to reload.
Never rely on SmartSwitch to store critical files as it can fail miserably. It may cause other problems when switching devices and force another factory reset. I use it to save the homepage settings on the same device. It can also potentially import the initial cause for the reload.
Never encrypt data drives as you are the most likely one to be locked out. I never use screen lock for the same reason, double tap on/off.
If managed right stock Android's can be very stable. Current load on this N10+ will be 2 yo in June. Still fast and stable with minimal maintenance. This is one reason I rarely upgrade the firmware once I have a stable, optimized load. Android 9 and above are reasonably secure unless you do something stupid.

Thanks for the advice Blackhawk. It sounds a bit complicated for me! I was hoping for a paid simple option that would do most things I need.

Kash said:
Thanks for the advice Blackhawk. It sounds a bit complicated for me! I was hoping for a paid simple option that would do most things I need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It takes some thought. After doing 2 back to back reloads the mistakes I made in backup organization where painfully clear to me. Reloads can be very frustrating and even damaging if you're not completely prepared. There's a lot that can go wrong that will at the best cost you time... better to send that time in backup preparation. Remember to make a copy of your current contacts.
Passwords need to be preserved one way or another, redundantly and available enough to access. Delete the Google and Samsung accounts before factory reset and do the hard reset from settings rather than the boot menu. Least FRP raises its ugly head... a lock out would be a pain.
The problem with all the easy ways like SmartSwitch is they can potentially cause the loss of some or all of your critical data. It shouldn't be your primary backup! A complete and organized data drive makes everything easier, it allows you to make best use of that resource. Haphazard organization is just beating yourself repeatedly... so preparing for a reload serves more than one purpose.
The Android OS can be extremely stable to the point where you may think it could never fail.
A crash is just one drop, one near lightning strike, rootkit, or bootloop away. It will eventually happen.
One other consideration with data drives is vetting. Keep the download folder on the internal memory not the data drive. Vet files before moving to the data drive. Malware that is downloaded must be detected before it is copy to the data drive and backups! Suspicious files can be scanned with online Virustotal, scanning with the free version of Malwarebytes may occasionally pick off a trojan preloader... that one missed. Any unknown files should be deleted without opening.
Open files, images before moving them to the data drive. Watch for changes in the folder or system and that what you opened is what it's suppose to be. It's best to time stagger backup hdds rather than do all at once, just in case something makes it in. That's one reason you isolate the hdds from each other and the PC.