Database Info

Backups: Nandroid v. TiBu

Can someone help me understand the difference between a Nandroid backup and using Titanium Backup? Is it similar to the difference between image-based backup vs. file/application based backup? Under what circumstances would one be better than the other?

Your simile is spot on. Nandroid backup is used to completely restore a system with all apps and data.
Titanium Backup is used to restore/reinstall apps and data without changing your system. It's really handy if you get brave and decide to flash a new ROM on your phone. TiBu can put all your previously installed apps into place very quickly.
If you don't like the new ROM, just restore your old system from the Nandroid backup.

Ok, so help me think this through.
I've already Rooted/S-off/flashed a ROM on my phone. So presuming that the ROM image I download via CWM or XDA is on my card anyway, and I have TiBu (I have the paid version) that I can use to selectively restore apps, settings and data, would not Nandroid be redundant in this case?
OlafTheOx said:
Your simile is spot on. Nandroid backup is used to completely restore a system with all apps and data.
Titanium Backup is used to restore/reinstall apps and data without changing your system. It's really handy if you get brave and decide to flash a new ROM on your phone. TiBu can put all your previously installed apps into place very quickly.
If you don't like the new ROM, just restore your old system from the Nandroid backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The point of a nandriod backup is to easily go back to a working setup without having to spend time installing apps and tweaking all the numerous settings to your liking. 5 minutes to restore a nandroid backup vs. 2 - 4 hours of installing & tweaking.
DInc with CyanogenMod 6.1 & Invisiblek #28 kernel.

Download Nandroid
Where do I download Nandroid?
Will this one work from the G1 thread?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=459830
Thanks

Nandroid is actually part of Clockwork Recovery. If you reboot to recovery mode you can make and restore backups from there.
As you say your on a custom ROM I assume Clockwork Recovery/CWM/ROM Manager was installed as part of the process.

There is a good overview of ClockworkMod Recovery at http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/what-is-clockworkmod-recovery-and-how-to-use-it-on-android-complete-guide/#features

BillTheCat said:
Can someone help me understand the difference between a Nandroid backup and using Titanium Backup? Is it similar to the difference between image-based backup vs. file/application based backup? Under what circumstances would one be better than the other?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was just wondering about the same thing, so thanks for the thread.
Making a Nandroid backup right now ;-)

BTW, nandroid backups are stored on your SD card. You can free up space by either deleting or moving them to storage off the phone. Just keep a backup of your preferred restoration ROM on the SD card. Also, at the very least, it's a good idea to save a backup of the original manufacturer's ROM somewhere.
DInc with CyanogenMod 6.1 & Invisiblek #28 kernel.

technoplunk said:
There is a good overview of ClockworkMod Recovery at addictivetips dot com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the link.
One issue though... it says ClockWorkMod requires ROOT access to create a backup rom image, which on my phone (ATT Aria with HBOOT 1.02) require to have S-OFF first with alpharev, yet most instructions tell you to create a nandroid backup first (which makes sense in case something goes wrong)...
Am I missing something ? you can't create a back, and you take risk doing S-OFF+Root to get there.
I want to remove unwanted ATT crapware, and install non market apps, but I need root access for all this. right ?

Titanium Backup Question

I (finally) flashed v2.0 touchmiuiwiz, someone suggested that since nandroid restores cause fc's, that i should flash the rom, reboot, let it load, then go back into cwm and restore data.
i did that, and the music player/camera/gallery/etc still dont work. i guess i'm being forced into titanium backup. question is - does it work if i make a backup ON THIS ROM then restore? or do i have to flash a different rom that doesn't fc said apps, THEN backup, then flash v2.0 and restore?
also, how does tit backup work? after flashing, where do i go to restore data? thanks bros.

anyone? =|

when you make a backup and restore you have to wipe data/factory ereset and it will work from any rom!
titanium backup makes a backup file of all your apps on the sd card and you can backup whenever you want.

so after the data wipe, i re-download titanium backup and restore from there?

Yeah, pretty much. TB Pro you don't have to confirm each app install when restoring. It was expensive but since I flash often it really speeds up the recovery process.
You can back up settings as well as apps. But I would only restore settings if on the same rom, no matter the version, unless significant. But all else, apps you can restore from any rom no problem. However, if you get a FC in an app (sometimes I'd get it for Gmail) you can just wipe the data for that app. It usually resolves the problem.

[Q] Titanium Backup vs. ClockworkMod Recovery

I am a noob to rooting/unlocking but was sucessful in rooting my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 thanks to these guys (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2046439). :good:
Now, here is my problem;
I did a backup with titanium and it put a 1gb save file on my sd card. I was able to save it to my google drive account which is awesome but I also have ClockworkMod Recovery. This has a "Backup Current Rom" option.
1. What exactly is the difference between what Titanium backup does and what ClockworkMod Recovery does?
2. If they are the same, which backup is better (easier and safer to use)?
3. Is it reduntant to have both of them installed?

CWM backs up your entire ROM. Install something that makes your phone freeze? Just restore your last CWM backup from Recovery.
Titanium Backup backs up your apps and data. It does not backup your ROM. It was particularly useful in the past to restore your apps and data after flashing a new ROM, but changes to Android's storage and Google restore has made it less necessary, imo.

[Q] Flashing ROM & Restoring Apps ect

If I flash a ROM and then want to restore all my apps and data, why should I use Titanium?
1. So I see that my google "Backup account" can backup my data and restore apps and there settings and data. So why use Titanium?
2. whats the difference between googles backup and Titanium's?
3. Can I use both together when restoring? I assume google will restore first and then I will restore from Titanium... Is there any reason to restore from google account?
4. And then there's TWRP and its backup: what I understand about this is if I do a backup before I flash Viper Rom then I can flash my backup if I want to return to my old ROM and it will restore the ROM and apps and all data (so I wouldn't need to restore from Titanium and/or google in this scenario?). Is this correct?
Thanks, smoka

the app data that is being talked about is rarely 3rd party app data.
http://www.howtogeek.com/140376/htg-explains-what-android-data-is-backed-up-automatically/
titanium lets you back up apps whenever you please it even lets you keep old copies around if for some reason there is something in an update you don't like.
your assumptions on TWRP are spot on however if you make a backup today and a month down the road you decide to flash back all your apps have data from a month ago and you loose all your new stuff.
Titanium also lets you extract data from a TWRP or CWM backup. at least on an M8 I've only gotten it to work if the backup is on the "internal sd card"
Titanium pro has a lot of additional features scheduled backups. you can sync to a google drive, dropbox, or box account. backing up only data/apps that have changed.
http://matrixrewriter.com/android/
also if you have backups of everything and all you have is a metered net connection you can reinstall the apps without dipping into whatever data pool you have.

n0ne980 said:
the app data that is being talked about is rarely 3rd party app data.
http://www.howtogeek.com/140376/htg-explains-what-android-data-is-backed-up-automatically/
titanium lets you back up apps whenever you please it even lets you keep old copies around if for some reason there is something in an update you don't like.
your assumptions on TWRP are spot on however if you make a backup today and a month down the road you decide to flash back all your apps have data from a month ago and you loose all your new stuff.
Titanium also lets you extract data from a TWRP or CWM backup. at least on an M8 I've only gotten it to work if the backup is on the "internal sd card"
Titanium pro has a lot of additional features scheduled backups. you can sync to a google drive, dropbox, or box account. backing up only data/apps that have changed.
http://matrixrewriter.com/android/
also if you have backups of everything and all you have is a metered net connection you can reinstall the apps without dipping into whatever data pool you have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, so what if I do a Titanium backup and then use TWRP to restore from a backup "a month ago" and then will I still have my most resent Titanium backup to restore or will restoring the TWRP backup erase all my current data (titanium backup) on my phone?
thanks for you response

TWRP will not remove your Titanium backups unless you specifically tell it to wipe your sd card (sdcard2) or your personal data partition(sdcard1) depending on where you have it set to back things up to.

smokawhat said:
ok, so what if I do a Titanium backup and then use TWRP to restore from a backup "a month ago" and then will I still have my most resent Titanium backup to restore or will restoring the TWRP backup erase all my current data (titanium backup) on my phone?
thanks for you response
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP takes a snapshot of your system in time. I you do a TWRP nandroid, by default it will copy your /boot, /system, /recovery and /data partitions. Think of it like a restore point in Windows Restore - except better
Titanium Backup is more specific (and also or more limited): You use it for your apps and their data.
It becomes useful if you do a clean install as in: wiping your data partition.
Yes, you can also do a partial restore from TWRP and just restore the data partition of any given nandroid after a clean install, but since it's an image of your /data before the wipe it will also restore potential problems. Restoring with TiBu is somewhat "cleaner" since it re-installs your apps from a backup.
I make a nandroid of my system when I want to flash something new - a new rom or new mod - but I want to keep my option to return to my last working setup.
I use TiBu to reinstall my apps after a clean install.
Anyway - you can never have too many backups :laugh:

berndblb said:
TWRP takes a snapshot of your system in time. I you do a TWRP nandroid, by default it will copy your /boot, /system, /recovery and /data partitions. Think of it like a restore point in Windows Restore - except better
Titanium Backup is more specific (and also or more limited): You use it for your apps and their data.
It becomes useful if you do a clean install as in: wiping your data partition.
Yes, you can also do a partial restore from TWRP and just restore the data partition of any given nandroid after a clean install, but since it's an image of your /data before the wipe it will also restore potential problems. Restoring with TiBu is somewhat "cleaner" since it re-installs your apps from a backup.
I make a nandroid of my system when I want to flash something new - a new rom or new mod - but I want to keep my option to return to my last working setup.
I use TiBu to reinstall my apps after a clean install.
Anyway - you can never have too many backups :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is TiBu?

Titanium backup.lol.
Sent from my Xperia Arc using XDA Free mobile app

[Q] Backup for nexus 5

what is the best tool do backup my apps and app data, for flashing different roms.
Titanium backup pro (seems to be everyones preference), Rom toolbox pro (seems to do a lot more, and cheaper, better UI) or any other easy and better alternatives?

xkawsx said:
what is the best tool do backup my apps and app data, for flashing different roms.
Titanium backup pro (seems to be everyones preference), Rom toolbox pro (seems to do a lot more, and cheaper, better UI) or any other easy and better alternatives?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally backup my apps using Titanium then do a nandroid backup so i can revert to where i was should i want to go back to it without doing a fresh install of that rom.

titanium for apps and data. Nandroid to restore as is...

Sorry for being noob, but a bit confused. Say if i'm wanting to play with different roms are these the steps?
1)backup apps/data titanum
2) backup nandroid on TWRP
3) factory wipe/reset
4) flash rom
5) flash gapps
6) wipe cache/dalvik
7) restore nandroid
8) restore apps from titanium
correct?

Remove steps 6 and 7.
You rarely need to wipe dalvik/cache despite how many times people around here say it as if it's essential
A nandroid backup is a complete backup of the state of your phone as it is. ROM/apps/settings/contacts/texts/homescreens...basically everything
If you restore a nandroid after you you install a new ROM, you are essentially restoring your old ROM as it was when you made the backup

so the nandroid backup part is only used to restore if flashing new ROM has failed? just as backup backup lol?

xkawsx said:
so the nandroid backup part is only used to restore if flashing new ROM has failed? just as backup backup lol?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
and 6 isn't required because you'v already done a factory reset

xkawsx said:
so the nandroid backup part is only used to restore if flashing new ROM has failed? just as backup backup lol?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Precisely.
Unless you are absolutely confident of what you are flashing, you should really do a nandroid backup before you flash any zip file, not just when changing ROMs. It's good common sense practice.
A nandroid backup is a safe point to restore to in case anything goes wrong. When/if that horror happens, you'll be glad you took the extra time to make the nandroid
- If you have a bad flash without a nandroid backup (e.g. bootloop or device doesn't boot), it can be much harder to recover
- If you have a bad flash with a nandroid backup, restore the nandroid

thanks guys, felt like ive learnt a life lesson lol!
I shall purchase titanium backup!