Hi guys,
I've been playing around with my Nexus S for about 3 weeks and I've decided to root it, but I have some question, I've been searching the answers in older posts but it's not quite clear yet, hope you can help me.
When I unlocked the bootloader, what kind of data will be wiped? It's just the SD card or also all the apps I've already downloaded? what about SMS, pictures and videos?
Is there anyway I can backup that data considering I haven't root it yet???
Thanks in advance.
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
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Click to collapse
lol what? its nobodys fault but your own. all the resources are available, just because somebody isnt responding to your threads and holding your hand to restore a nandriod backup doesnt make it a "lack of a community".. and your phone isn't bricked, it can be recovered but you are too close-minded and cant install Clockwork Recovery / get drivers working
The data that will be wiped are most likely your SMS/settings/etc. This is standard procedure. And its something you'll go through a lot when you are using custom ROMs.
There are complete instructions for rooting, unrooting and unbricking your phone. It's all here in the forums, and many other places, you just have to look and learn. I read for two weeks before I unlocked and loaded a ROM into my NS.
If you don't have a need to root your phone I wouldn't do it just because you can. I wanted to run the Voodoo app so I had to root and load a ROM. It took a little while but it was painless and I liked learning about the Android system.
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
RogerPodacter said:
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
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its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
"brick" describes a device that cannot function in any capacity (such as a device with damaged firmware)
In the strictest sense of the term, bricking must imply that software error has rendered the device completely unrecoverable without some hardware replacement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)
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I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
Netconn said:
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
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What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
Make a nandroid backup first and foremost! Use Titanium Backup to make a backup of all your apps. If you want a backup of your sms, go sms pro really does a great job of that. Dont forget your contacts as well! Then copy your sd card and place it on the hard drive of your computer. When you unlock the bootloader, it does wipe your sd card. Once your unlocked and rooted, you should be able to restore everything once you replace the copy of your sd card back on the phone. Coming over from a Vibrant, I was nervous about rooting the phone but its an easy process. Just take your time and do lots of reading! Hope this helps!
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Woops..yeah, your right there. Too quick to reply. I followed this method here..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=895545
and had no problems. Once you get unlocked/rooted and clockwork recovery, then you can make the fore mentioned backups. Export your contacts to the sd card then copy the sd card to the hard drive of your computer before unlocking the boot loader. I do not think apps get affected during the sd wipe unless you have them stored there.
zephiK said:
its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
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i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
may i suggest a noob proof guide|? i postted 1 in the htc desire forum and people love it. yesterday i returned a moto xoom because ti was overheating , got a nexus s and 2day il b returning that because it wont turn on. can any1 help me think of a good idea i can tell the future shop return people?
kmhil said:
I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
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you are forced to lose your data to initially root your device. then after that point, you can always create backups and never lose data again while you switch between ROMs and flashing etc. but i think to initially root, you have to lose everything. not the sd card though.
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
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Do keep in mind, we don't have an i9020 or an i9023, we have an i9020A So the instruction out there all need to take that into considerations. I rooted mine fine with no "Bricking" I had to follow the instruction for the i9023, but it worked. I figure it took me all of 1 minute to root my phone. Admitedly, the "One click root" for the Galaxy series was easier.
I try to make it a point to never be the "First" person to do something on their phone. Much safer that way.
I also find it very unusual that you've managed to brick two phones, I've also had the pleasure of owning the telus fascinate, and not once did i get it bricked, I tried Bionics, CM7, Darky's and a bunch of other ones. Just never mess with the boot loader. When you went back to stock, did you make sure it was a stock ROM for the I9020A?
Have you tried connecting the USB to a computer, holding the volume up (or in the case of the galaxy, both up and down) While powering on the device? I've had to use that a few times to recover my galaxy (Thank you odin!!).
Now in regards to the OP, I would recommend using a program like Ti to back everything up, unlock the bootloader then restore from Ti, it's a little more hassel, but you can pretty much keep your settings and data. Personally, i rooted my phone before configuring a single thing on it.
kmhil said:
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
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there is no way to make a good backup without rooting.
basically yes, you will lose all your settings
there are a few apps you can use to backup your apk before unlocing/rooting the phone.
look for App admin on market https://market.android.com/details?id=az.mecid.appadmin&feature=search_result
the stuff backed to SD does not get wiped
only the internal storage stuff
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i took about 12 minutes total to unlock my bootloader, flash clockwork, and flash a custom rom. its not difficult if you pay attention to what you read. youre phone is not bricked. btw, i read your threads. if you werent so demanding, i would have helped. use the pdanet website the next time you need to install the proper driver, and follow the directions that they give you.
When I unlocked I used Astro to back up my apps, I turned on the Google data sync to back up my contacts and I did a back up of my SD on my computer.
When the unlock and recovery was done NS asked for my Google account then it restored all my contacts, Astro restored all my apps and I restored my files from my computer. A few steps but not difficult at all.
You will have to redo your accounts and data, and maybe an app or two won't load but the market will show them installed, just reinstall any that didn't.
Make sure you follow the directions properly in the forum. I had to use two computers to get it to work, but it did work and nothing was damaged.
With all that said.... This was the first time I have ever owned or altered an Android phone. Sure I was nervous... Now I'm hooked.. haha
I wound up using NSCollab .17 so far so good..
First thing I did when I got my phone was fastboot oem unlock.
Even if you don't want to root, use another ROM. Fastboot unlock it so your data doesn't get wiped.
If your hardware and everything seems okay, then flash Clockwork Recovery and do a nandroid backup so you can restore to pre-flashing point if you need it for OEM purposes.
Afterwards, go crazy and flash like theres no tomorrow and find something that you'll like.
And agreed with simms. You've made so made so many threads about this. I would help you step by step but I've been busy so I can't do that anymore. But if you search, you'll find about two or three threads where I did help somebody get their phone to a working state.
The basic idea is... if your phone doesn't boot but you can get to recovery.
- Download a ROM or Nandroid backup
- Install USB drivers
- Fastboot oem unlock (if you haven't)
- fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (or whatever the recovery.img is named) should be in /sdk/tools
- reboot into recovery (adb reboot recovery)
- mount and storage: mount USB, put the nandroid backup or ROM onto phone
- nandroid restore or flash a ROM (wipe factory,dalvik,cache --> flash ROM (if its CM7.. flash gapps afterwards)
- reboot
your phone boots. alternatively, you can use Odin but thats not a popular method but the choice is available if you wish to go towards that approach
in the worse worse possible case scenario there is always ODIN to the rescue
Why did you guys wait at all?
Once i got the phone i immediately plugged it into my computer and rooted it.
HTC Sense is just not my thing, I don't like it one bit. I need to root so I can flash a ROM onto my phone. I don't need S-OFF because I don't plan on flashing an ICS ROM.
I looked for ways to root but you need a usb cable to proceed with the rooting. Thing is, I don't have one... Is there a way to root without the use of a computer? Perhaps a certain one click root method? My phone is 2.3.4 gingerbread.
Thanks for all the help!
lixfejbarrera said:
HTC Sense is just not my thing, I don't like it one bit. I need to root so I can flash a ROM onto my phone. I don't need S-OFF because I don't plan on flashing an ICS ROM.
I looked for ways to root but you need a usb cable to proceed with the rooting. Thing is, I don't have one... Is there a way to root without the use of a computer? Perhaps a certain one click root method? My phone is 2.3.4 gingerbread.
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You're definitely going to need a computer. Sorry if that's not the answer you were looking for. Luckily you can find a cable like this one pretty cheap.
Good Luck,
Michael
If you already have clockworkmod recovery installed, then you can flash a ROM from your phone without a computer.
If you were S-OFF then you could use one of the custom PG59IMG.zip packages I've made to get clockworkmod recovery onto the device without a computer.
If you are S-ON and stock, then you need a computer to hack your device.
If you can figure out a way of escalating yourself to root level privileges without a computer on a fresh factory device with security enabled, the entire community would love to know about it.
Sent from a digital distance.
Would z4root work?
Just hook it up to a computer. If you're not using any of the OTA patches use Revolutionary. That takes about 15 minutes tops to do. The hardest part is to flash the Superuser.apk through recovery (that has to be tried about five or six times for it to stick).
K7Cobb said:
Would z4root work?
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No
Blue6IX said:
If you already have clockworkmod recovery installed, then you can flash a ROM from your phone without a computer.
If you were S-OFF then you could use one of the custom PG59IMG.zip packages I've made to get clockworkmod recovery onto the device without a computer.
If you are S-ON and stock, then you need a computer to hack your device.
If you can figure out a way of escalating yourself to root level privileges without a computer on a fresh factory device with security enabled, the entire community would love to know about it.
Sent from a digital distance.
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Click to collapse
Can u give the link to download the PG59IMG file. I have S-OFF but no access to pc. Also please give me the link to the noob tut to flash the file
So my girlfriend's Verizon Galaxy S III is in quite the jam. The power button stopped working. She has to use a software button to turn the screen off and the home key to turn it back on.
Verizon sent over a replacement, but she needs to send the original phone in. Problem is, the normal methods for returning to stock all involve Odin, which requires the phone to enter Download mode....which we can't do. The phone won't register the power button being held down. I don't even want to turn it off since I'm not sure it could be turned back on.
So I've been googling around for another way (already having used Triangle Away) and found a couple of sets of instructions (here and here) on using Odin Mobile to flash the phone back to stock. But there seem to be a lot of comments around, especially on the YouTube video guides, of people saying it bricked their phone.
What's the safest bet here? As far as I can tell these are the options:
-Shut down the phone and pray the power button somehow works for getting into download mode (doubtful) so I can use Odin.
-Restore a nandroid / flash a zip of the stock ROM and then use EZ Root or whatever to unroot the phone and hope Verizon doesn't look into it.
-Use one of these sets of instructions for Mobile Odin...though it's not clear which one is best and what files I should be using.
-Just send it in and pray.
Odin Mobile seems like the smartest option...but the instructions out there aren't as comprehensive and up to date as I'd like. I'd rather not brick the phone.
Can anyone help? The phone is currently on AOKP 4.2 Milestone.
I originally accidentally posted this in the international forum. A poster there advised that I use Odin Mobile. What files should I use to move safely back to stock? I've never flashed back to stock before so I'm not familiar with the best source or if there's a specific version I need.
Thanks!
If all you need to do is get into download mode, you could probably force it with a usb jig. Then you can use ODIN on a pc and restore it that way. I have no idea how to use mobile odin, but I assume it shouldn't be that difficult to do a similar process. People make mistakes by not reading correctly and moving too fast through a process.
You could try to reboot, then while the phone is booting back up hold volume down + home to get to download mode. Just be ready to flash the phone, if your power button is broken you're only going to have 1 shot to do it and no way to verify it worked.
Did you happen to make a nandroid of your stock rooted rom? If so, you could just restore that and unroot it.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I did create a back-up. Would restoring back-up -> using triangle away -> ez unlock to re lock bootloader -> unroot be just as good as using Odin?
What's the best tool for unrooting? I rooted it for her almost a year ago so I don't remember. I have a Galaxy Nexus myself.
Thanks!
You can always unroot from a superuser app from within the rom itself. On a stock rom you would simply relock with ez unlock, unroot with superuser app, then phone would be pretty much stock.
All triangle away does is erase the flash counter, you only had to do that once. It won't be tripped unless you flashed something over odin.
I think your best bet is to restore that backup, then accept an OTA update after unrooting and relocking the bootloader. That will overwrite your recovery partition and make sure you're back to full stock. Is your stock backup touchwiz 4.0.4 or 4.1.1? It won't work with a 4.1.2 backup.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I'm kind of new to the whole rooting thing. However, I managed to root the Unlock the bootloader, install the recovery and then root it. However when I tried to install a ROM the phone when off after I had wiped the old OS. So at the moment I am stuck in limbo, all the phone does is flash, any ideas? Thanks.
Waggy2014 said:
I'm kind of new to the whole rooting thing. However, I managed to root the Unlock the bootloader, install the recovery and then root it. However when I tried to install a ROM the phone when off after I had wiped the old OS. So at the moment I am stuck in limbo, all the phone does is flash, any ideas? Thanks.
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You might want to post in the emergency thread for this.
Someone will chime in I am sure. From what little I know, I would try using the RUU (ROM update utility) to restore the phone.
Before you do that, wait a little while and maybe someone else will post with some other method. The RUU will hopefully restore your phone to stock.
I'm trying to do that now buy it just wont boot up so I can't run the program
I have a Samsung gs3 that bricked on me last week while trying to do some updates. It was rooted and running automated backups twice a week. I've now got a GS5 running 5.0, and I'm leery of rooting just yet. Is there any hope of recovering any portion of my missing app data without rooting?
Thanks!
Rooting on gs5 is safe. I rooted the day after I bought it.
Rooting is the best way to get app data and honestly it's safe.
Just follow instructions on the forum and you should be good to go.
Which procedure did you use? It sounds like there could be issued coming from 5.0, as opposed to starting at 4.4.4 and flashing forward...
gijoecam said:
Which procedure did you use? It sounds like there could be issued coming from 5.0, as opposed to starting at 4.4.4 and flashing forward...
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look in the forums. I used CF Auto Root through ODIN.
I started with OA6 (full tar) and did it from there.
OA6 tar.
CF Auto Root
KTOONSEZ TWRP Recovery
and then MOAR 6.1 (with extra stuff)
then KTOONSEZ kernal (some folks stick with stock, FYI)
Ok, I feel like I should understand what you wrote, but I can't quite sort out how to get there... Given how I screwed up last week and bricked my s3, I'm a little gun shy.
I just want to get to rooted stock, but it appears I need to go back to 4.4.x/NE5 to root to start with, right? Then flash a custom recovery, (trip Knox, which is fine).
From there, how do I get back to 5.0/OA6 ?
I know enough to be dangerous (as evidenced by the brick on my desk)...
gijoecam said:
Ok, I feel like I should understand what you wrote, but I can't quite sort out how to get there... Given how I screwed up last week and bricked my s3, I'm a little gun shy.
I just want to get to rooted stock, but it appears I need to go back to 4.4.x/NE5 to root to start with, right? Then flash a custom recovery, (trip Knox, which is fine).
From there, how do I get back to 5.0/OA6 ?
I know enough to be dangerous (as evidenced by the brick on my desk)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me see if I can help
You can root the S5 from Android 5.0 (Lollipop), you don't have to downgrade.
Download this file to your PC: http://download.chainfire.eu/408/CF-Root/CF-Auto-Root/CF-Auto-Root-kltespr-kltespr-smg900p.zip
It's CF-Auto Root for the Sprint S5 on Lollipop. Unzip it on your PC using something like 7-Zip.
After you unzip it, use Odin to root your S5. Put your phone in download mode by shutting it down (pull the battery, don't use any kind of menu to boot into download mode. Put battery back in and go into download mode by holding Volume DOWN, Home button and Power button. You'll see a screen to press Volume UP to continue. Hook up your phone via USB.
Start Odin. You should see a blue COM setting in the upper left side of Odin. If you don't, then you need to install the USB drivers on your PC. (If that's the case, stop there as you'll need to find and install them.
If everything is ok, then click the PDA or AP button (depends on which version of Odin you have) and browse to the file you un-zipped and select the .tar.md5 file and click Start. When it finishes, it will reboot your phone. At this point I don't remember if CF-Autoroot includes SuperSU, but if not, download from the Playstore and you're rooted.
As far as your original issue of wanting to restore app data, it isn't advisable as your wanting to restore from the S3 on Kitkat to the S5 on Lollipop. You're just asking for headaches if you do it. But if you're going to try, install a custom recovery and do a nanoid backup first.
Hope this helps
Thanks for that! That does help.
I almost think I need to just buy a replacement s3, root it, pull all the backup data back down, transfer it to the new phone, then turn back around and sell it...? I thought I had most of the data I needed died on the SD card, but there were apparently a couple apps I never set up properly to do so, and those are the ones I'm trying to get back.