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Titanium and an External SD Card

I use MyBackup Pro and it can store its backups on an external SD card. I've searched but haven't been able to discover if Titanium has this same capability. If a phone needs to be replaced, what good is it to have the backup internally? I know I can perform a copy of the TitaniumBackup folder to my external SD card (or my PC) along with its files, but can it be done automagically as a program option during the backup?
Titanium allows you to change the name of the backup folder, so I went so far as to keep the TitaniumBackup folder name but point the folder location to the SD card (\sdcard\sd). No luck...unless my syntax is wrong.
So, in summary, I want to have the Titanium Backups deposited on my external SD card as part of the normal, one-step backup process. If it can't be done, I wonder why it hasn't been implemented as an option since it seems logical (at least to me ).

oh yes i would like this too, but can it be done?

Drop the sdcard and use a relative path. I have several directories on my external card. I have a main titanium directory with subdirectories for the roms I load..for example here's my current path:
sd/TitaniumBackup/JH7

Raleran said:
Drop the sdcard and use a relative path. I have several directories on my external card. I have a main titanium directory with subdirectories for the roms I load..for example here's my current path:
sd/TitaniumBackup/JH7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! I just heard back from the developer and was about to post his reply (which equals yours). My backup is now at sd/TitaniumBackup.
For others, here's what you do - assuming you're using an external SD card. In Titanium's preferences change the backup folder name to sd/TitaniumBackup. If you need to exchange your device you can then put your SD card in your new phone and restore the backups contained therein.
Don't forget to delete the existing backups and TitaniumBackup folder that's, by default, internal to your phone. Then create your "portable" backups.

so after you make the change, when you open up and see stats page, backup directory should say: /sdcard/sd/titaniumbackup ?

clueless captivate said:
so after you make the change, when you open up and see stats page, backup directory should say: /sdcard/sd/titaniumbackup ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, plus the first two directory items should read:
Data directory: /data
External storage: /sdcard (ok)

[Q] What are the files inside .android_secure?

i seem to have over 1 GB of wasted space in that folder .android_secure
any 1 got a clue if those are safe to delete?

I've never found that deleting anything on my SD card caused major problems for the phone, including .android_secure. Of course, that folder has never been 1 GB in size for me, either, so I suppose your results may vary. Really, though, all the system stuff is in the protected internal storage, so I doubt you'll do much worse than delete media files or whatever apps you've moved to the SD card, if that. I say give it a shot and see what happens. Of course, I take no responsibility for anything that does go wrong if you do. >.>

apparently those are Apps settings or something along the lines
i flashed SuperAOS and during the wiping process it showed it was deleting .android_secure

App2sd
This is where the operating system stores a portion of the apps. Anytime you install a new app and choose to install it to the SD card, it puts a large portion of the app into this folder. Deleting the contents would delete your apps.

If you move an app to the SD card via the official (2.2+) method, this is where (most of it) goes.

Hi,
I recently flashed a new ROM and had to do a full wipe including factory reset. I copied some apps to SD, and indeed I see that the .android_secure folder has a lot in it, taking up space. I installed all apps again from market on the new ROM install, and they all say they can be copied to SD again, so they don't take information from the previously installed bits on the SD card. Is it safe to delete everything in this folder?
EDIT: I have an HTC Hero, but only noticed when I posted this that this is a Samsung Nexus S thread. I'm guessing that this is not that big a deal?

mikebel3 said:
This is where the operating system stores a portion of the apps. Anytime you install a new app and choose to install it to the SD card, it puts a large portion of the app into this folder. Deleting the contents would delete your apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry to revive this thread after so long, but does this folder also store the app data? In other words, for games like plants vs zombies or angry birds etc, if I copy the corresponding files over to my new phone (after installing PVZ/AB on the new phone of course), does it also copy over my progress?
(recently swapped my EVO 4G to EVO 3D and trying to figure out how to copy the game progress over - esp for PVZ)

jj14 said:
(recently swapped my EVO 4G to EVO 3D and trying to figure out how to copy the game progress over - esp for PVZ)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium Backup?

suksit said:
Titanium Backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't that only for rooted phones?

[Q] How did my sdcard get "wiped" when I installed the newest AOKP ROM?

OK, so I'm using wiped in quotes because according to my available free space, it appears my data is still there somewhere. It's just that it's really not and I don't understand why (or where it may be hiding). I've done this many times and never had this problem, so I don't think I did anything wrong, but here are the steps I took: I made a TWRP backup. I wiped my cache, then my Dalvik cache, and then did a factory reset. I installed the new AOKP ROM (aokp_d2vzw_jb-mr1_build-3), installed Gapps, and installed the flashable zip for Titanium Backup. I then booted into Android with no problem, went through the setup process, and rebooted into TWRP. At that point, I was going to install the flashable update.zip I created from Titanium Backup, but I couldn't find it or any of my normal files or folders. I booted back into Android and checked again with a file explorer and sure enough – it's only showing the basic folders you start with and none of my content is there. Like I said, it appears my data is still there somewhere according to my available free space, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. When I was in TWRP, I hit the button to restore and it showed me my two Nandroid backups, so I feel like the files have to be hiding somewhere.
I'm not really sure what caused it, but I know the files were still there after the wiping and the factory reset, or else I wouldn't have had the zip files to then flash. Therefore, I feel like it had to be during the AOKP or the Gapps install where my sdcard got erased (I forgot to mention my Titanium Backup somehow never got installed). Oh, and just to be clear, I'm talking about the internal (emulated) sdcard, so I can't simply pull it out and put it in my PC to search the contents.
Does anyone have any idea how this happened or where my files are? I'm tempted to do a restore to see if get everything back so I can then make more backups and store them somewhere else.

On your internal SD, do you have a /0 folder? methinks all your stuff's in there....
It's an artifact of flashing 4.2.1 and it's "multiple user accounts" feature

letinsh said:
On your internal SD, do you have a /0 folder? methinks all your stuff's in there....
It's an artifact of flashing 4.2.1 and it's "multiple user accounts" feature
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I don't have a /0 folder on my sdcard. I did find a /0 folder somewhere in my root, but it only mirrored what's currently on the sdcard.

I found it! It's not on my card, but in the root, under data/media. There is a /0 folder in there as well and it links to the sdcard folder. To be safe, I'm going to first copy everything to my real external sdcard before trying to put it back.

/data/media is the real path for your internal sd card. All the other paths (/mnt/sdcard0, /sdcard, /storage/sdcard0, etc) are just pointers that look at the /data/media location. If you were looking in any of those other locations, the 0 folder should have been seen...
Either way, I'm glad you found your data!

letinsh said:
/data/media is the real path for your internal sd card. All the other paths (/mnt/sdcard0, /sdcard, /storage/sdcard0, etc) are just pointers that look at the /data/media location. If you were looking in any of those other locations, the 0 folder should have been seen...
Either way, I'm glad you found your data!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that makes sense, but I assure you it isn't showing. The only thing that's showing is the contents of the /0 folder which is inside the data/media folder.
In other words, it appears the system created a /0 folder in my internal sdcard and decided that new folder would now be my internal sdcard. So if I'm trying to browse the internal sdcard, I have no way of going up a level and getting to my old content; the system considers that part of the root. Luckily, I can use FX File Explorer to get in there and access the files.

JerseyMike4 said:
Well, that makes sense, but I assure you it isn't showing. The only thing that's showing is the contents of the /0 folder which is inside the data/media folder.
In other words, it appears the system created a /0 folder in my internal sdcard and decided that new folder would now be my internal sdcard. So if I'm trying to browse the internal sdcard, I have no way of going up a level and getting to my old content; the system considers that part of the root. Luckily, I can use FX File Explorer to get in there and access the files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's like that because of Android profiles you can create now on 4.2, so basically I'd you were to make another profile it'd be /1 and so on.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

GoonAssJuan said:
It's like that because of Android profiles you can create now on 4.2, so basically I'd you were to make another profile it'd be /1 and so on.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes sense. But it would have been nice if the system "moved" my data automatically when I upgraded.

Restored nandroid, what's with the sdcard?

Hey guys,
a nandroid backup is a really convenient method to backup your complete phone and restore everything or partially data. All partitions (/system, /data, /cache) were being backed up.
But what happens with the sdcard?
Before I flash/install a new rom, I always format my sdcard with my PC, hence I make sure, that it’s clean and has no remains from older roms.
On first boot, the android system creates a lot of folders contaning data, which both are modified during the daily use. For example the folder “DCIM” contains all the taken pictures and videos.
But what’s about these?
- .android_secure
- .dta
- .estrong
- and especially “Android” and subfolders
What happens, if I make a full nandroid of my phone, format my sdcard, so that all the folders and data, which were created while using the rom, were deleted. After that I restore the complete backup and boot up the phone.
My question is, how the restored system will react, if it notices, that these folders and their contents were not available?
- will they be recreated?
- does the system not boot
- after booting it will show some error messages?
- something else?
Thanks in advance!
@@RON

Hi
Greeting
Nandroid only backups phone memory
It does not backup sdcard
And their is no need to format sd card everytime before flashing Rom (i haven't formated my sd card even once ) every thing works f9
Even if u remove all the file from sdcard which u mentaion then the phone recreate these file againg and causes no problem
Basically a Rom has to do nothing with the sdcard the phone runs completely even without sdcard . Sd card is just an expansion of memory to phones
And you do whatever with it , it does not affect the way your Rom runs
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using xda premium

@@RON said:
Hey guys,
a nandroid backup is a really convenient method to backup your complete phone and restore everything or partially data. All partitions (/system, /data, /cache) were being backed up.
But what happens with the sdcard?
Before I flash/install a new rom, I always format my sdcard with my PC, hence I make sure, that it’s clean and has no remains from older roms.
On first boot, the android system creates a lot of folders contaning data, which both are modified during the daily use. For example the folder “DCIM” contains all the taken pictures and videos.
But what’s about these?
- .android_secure
- .dta
- .estrong
- and especially “Android” and subfolders
What happens, if I make a full nandroid of my phone, format my sdcard, so that all the folders and data, which were created while using the rom, were deleted. After that I restore the complete backup and boot up the phone.
My question is, how the restored system will react, if it notices, that these folders and their contents were not available?
- will they be recreated?
- does the system not boot
- after booting it will show some error messages?
- something else?
Thanks in advance!
@@RON
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When making a nandroid backup, system, data, boot and cache partitions are saved. Also, the android_secure from the SDcard is saved. As for the other folders, they are not kept. EStrongs is the guys who make ES File Explorer, and I believe this folder has something to do with the app. I don't know about the other folders, but they are not required for running the ROM. If they are missing, they will be recreated.
I believe I answered some of your questions above, but I'll answer the rest here:
-As I said, the restore won't create the folders, but the ROM might create them. At least one of the folders you listed is of an app, and there are many more apps that create folders on your SDCard, that's just cache or some data, which is not a problem to restore.
-The system will boot. That's the idea of a nandroid backup (if those folders were required, they would have been backed up)
-It will not show error messages, it will resume just like when you made the backuo.
-Something Else? You name it. There is no need to format your SDCard every time you flash a ROM, as usually it doesn't create problems. It can get a bit messy, but besides that, it's fine to keep it the way it is.

astar26 said:
When making a nandroid backup, system, data, boot and cache partitions are saved. Also, the android_secure from the SDcard is saved. As for the other folders, they are not kept. EStrongs is the guys who make ES File Explorer, and I believe this folder has something to do with the app. I don't know about the other folders, but they are not required for running the ROM. If they are missing, they will be recreated.
I believe I answered some of your questions above, but I'll answer the rest here:
-As I said, the restore won't create the folders, but the ROM might create them. At least one of the folders you listed is of an app, and there are many more apps that create folders on your SDCard, that's just cache or some data, which is not a problem to restore.
-The system will boot. That's the idea of a nandroid backup (if those folders were required, they would have been backed up)
-It will not show error messages, it will resume just like when you made the backuo.
-Something Else? You name it. There is no need to format your SDCard every time you flash a ROM, as usually it doesn't create problems. It can get a bit messy, but besides that, it's fine to keep it the way it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you're right!
I clicked through the folders on my sdcard and the most directories are named "cache" etc. Only some exceptions for e.g. whatsapp message database or downloaded maps for htc locations ...etc.
So it seems, that the android system and the installed apps create folders for their use. If a nandroid will be created, the last mentioned folder should be backed up, too ... but manually. Thus the first mentioned folders (.data ...) are unnecessary.
You said, that there is no need to format the sdcard everytime a new rom will be flashed. I think it is, because every new rom deserves a clean sdcard, which has no remains from older roms. So the rom can expand themself and have a great feeling
No joke, in my opinion it will be the better way, if there are no possible complications with older existing files.

@@RON said:
Yeah, you're right!
I clicked through the folders on my sdcard and the most directories are named "cache" etc. Only some exceptions for e.g. whatsapp message database or downloaded maps for htc locations ...etc.
So it seems, that the android system and the installed apps create folders for their use. If a nandroid will be created, the last mentioned folder should be backed up, too ... but manually. Thus the first mentioned folders (.data ...) are unnecessary.
You said, that there is no need to format the sdcard everytime a new rom will be flashed. I think it is, because every new rom deserves a clean sdcard, which has no remains from older roms. So the rom can expand themself and have a great feeling
No joke, in my opinion it will be the better way, if there are no possible complications with older existing files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What needs to be cleaned is cleaned when you wipe the phone. Anyway, formatting the SDCard is your choice. Files of apps that are not installed just won't be used. I like your idea of starting fresh, but it's quite a hassle to format and rearrange the SD every time I flash a ROM.
It's nice to have it clean without many directories (Imust say that I managed to reach such a situation with my own documents, with directories I created myself and have no idea what they are for. But I guess that's what you get when you don't clean your "room" for a couple of years.

TWRP backup including internal storage

We all know, at least I hope so, that if you perform a backup in TWRP the internal storage data (photos, documents, etc.) is not included in the backup.
https://twrp.me/faq/backupexclusions.html
Of course, you can always manually backup the internal storage. But it is possible to include the internal storage data in a TWRP backup by temporarily renaming the media folder inside the root folder data.
A TWRP backup includes the TWRP folder for it is part of the internal storage. Therefore it will also backup all the large files which are present. It is therefore more convenient to keep the TWRP folder as small as possible, but it is up to you.
1. Go into TWRP recovery.
2. The path is button advanced button file management within the data folder you will find the media folder. Rename the media folder
temporarily to e.g. ABC.
3. Perform a new backup in TWRP and give it a new name. Don't leave TWRP but enter file management again.
4. You will find a new media folder. This is because TWRP creates this media folder, it includes your new backup.
5. Your follow-up actions will be to rename the new media folder into e.g. DEF and rename the temporary folder ABC (which is the original media folder)
back to media.
6. Restart your system and now you find a TWRP backup including internal storage in the DEF folder. Move this backup to the TWRP folder and delete
the DEF folder.
Thats it.
Do not forget when you perform a recovery with this backup to repeat step 6.

update:
20180321-111816
OK I found another post, using same method but used examples.
Indeed they are using same method,
and I would like to thank OP and that post's OP.
both help to "include internal storage into TWRP backup".
thanks~
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/tutorial-create-internal-storage-backup-t3389172
--------------------------------------------------
Can you write in more simple english?
I really dont understand the details.
It will help with examples, with the full path instead of just "ABC" "DEF"
Thank you.

Good looking out OP. Never know when I may need this. :good:

a very good guide
you can always use

thanks for your effort! if you like you can test my solution
Universal-TWRP-Bind-Mount-Enabler.zip (do not flash!)

Thanks mart56, I am looking for this for some time and now i got right solution. it's really help me with internal storage backup.

Excellent
If backing up to external SD Card, media directory is not created, so just rename it back after the backup process. If rebooted without renaming back, then it recreates media directory.
.

I was looking for full back up solution and found this: https://www.xda-developers.com/tipatch-patches-twrp-full-data-backups/
Both options have drawbacks... I dont like wipe data option in TWRP to delete data including storage .
---------- Post added at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 PM ----------
mart56 said:
We all know, at least I hope so, that if you perform a backup in TWRP the internal storage data (photos, documents, etc.) is not included in the backup.
https://twrp.me/faq/backupexclusions.html
Of course, you can always manually backup the internal storage. But it is possible to include the internal storage data in a TWRP backup by temporarily renaming the media folder inside the root folder data.
A TWRP backup includes the TWRP folder for it is part of the internal storage. Therefore it will also backup all the large files which are present. It is therefore more convenient to keep the TWRP folder as small as possible, but it is up to you.
1. Go into TWRP recovery.
2. The path is button advanced button file management within the data folder you will find the media folder. Rename the media folder
temporarily to e.g. ABC.
3. Perform a new backup in TWRP and give it a new name. Don't leave TWRP but enter file management again.
4. You will find a new media folder. This is because TWRP creates this media folder, it includes your new backup.
5. Your follow-up actions will be to rename the new media folder into e.g. DEF and rename the temporary folder ABC (which is the original media folder)
back to media.
6. Restart your system and now you find a TWRP backup including internal storage in the DEF folder. Move this backup to the TWRP folder and delete
the DEF folder.
Thats it.
Do not forget when you perform a recovery with this backup to repeat step 6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I understand our media should be back up in ABC. So during recovery after "format data" or "wipe including internal storage" it will restore our media in ABC folder, do we need to rename it back to media using TWRP to complete recovery?
My understanding is that internal storage will stay in ABC, and not be visible when boot in System(not doing step 5). In system we will have the newly created media empty (because we can not do step 6 DEF folder is actual internal storage and will not be included in back up).
So do you mean that we need to do step (5) after recovery? Not step (6)?

useless
whenever i tried to take a backup,the same error pops up,even after following ur instructions.so ur post is useless for me.

Guys, does anybody know, why twrp doesn't see an option data including storage (large sd needed) while I am trying to restore it? It definitely is present in the backup

I followed this guide and the backup size is 28591MB (boot, data, system). However, the internal memory of my S4mini is only 8GB. How can the /data/media folder be bigger than the internal memory? It is not stored on the external sd card is it?
UPDATE: I deleted the /data/media/0/DCIM/.thumbnail folder and now the backup is only 4950MB

V helpful and useful tip Thanks