Hello. I'm new to the forum and still finding my way around so I apologise if I'm not in the correct place. I have decided to root my Galaxy Nexus and install a custom ROM. I am fairly comfortable with the rooting process and flashing the ROM as I have previous experience with my old (and missed) Nexus One. However when I changed the ROM on the Nexus One I lost the built-in document viewer that came with it. I ended up having to install separate pdf and word doc viewers from the market which were ok but perhaps not as good as the stock apps. I don't want this to happen this time and I am researching ways to preserve it. Having had a mooch around the phone and a general internet search I believe that the Gnex comes with a built in app called “ThinkFree” which deals with the pdf and other docs I wish to view on the phone. I have identified the .apk file (Thinkfree.apk) within /system/app/ area and wish to back this up or lump it in with my other apps for easy back-up so that I can reinstall it after flashing the custom ROM. I was going to root the phone then use a file manager ( Root Explorer or ES File Explorer) to move the .apk file to the/data/app area, back this up with an appropriate app backup utility, flash the new ROM and then restore the apps hoping that the Thinkfree app is up and running. Is this as straightforward as I hope it might be or am I being too simplistic? Any advice would be very much appreciated.
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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
Sorry for having to ask this, but Im a real novice when it comes to android (after being a windows mobile junkie for so long)...
What is the best way to backup all my settings/apps before rooting/unlocking, (things such as installed apps, email/facebook/twitter/etc account info, home screen customizations/widgets) and then restore them after the upgrade?
I am use to using UC on the windows side of things and it was quite involved. I am about to do the whole rooting thing (for the first time with an android device) and I am just trying to have all my bases covered.
Thanks in advance
[App] Es File manager
If you want to back up your apps before you root or upgrade I suggest you save the folders on your SD card. You can also backup your stuff on a cloud data base. Also ES file manager allows you to back up your apps. If you want to back up everything then use titanium backup but it requires root. Im unsure of your situation so I stated all the methods.
Misterowl said:
If you want to back up your apps before you root or upgrade I suggest you save the folders on your SD card. You can also backup your stuff on a cloud data base. Also ES file manager allows you to back up your apps. If you want to back up everything then use titanium backup but it requires root. Im unsure of your situation so I stated all the methods.
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Please stop digging up old posts to get your post count up. The reason for the post count minimum is so that it forces you to contribute information that is relevant. Do you really believe the OP still needs this information over a year later? Please stop.
I've rooted my g2x and installed ClockworkMod recovery via ROM Manager. I am new to android coming over as an iOS developer. I'm guessing that this handset will attract others in my situation.
As such, after rooting and reading a lot of threads its still unclear to me how to remove ROM apps, specifically Tmobiles infamous MyAccount.
Is there a method to SSH or through a terminal or what is the process?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, links as well if this post is redundant.
When you are rooted you need to download Titanium Backup from the market. Then you need to open it, allow root access, go to "backup/restore" and remove whatever you think you dont like. But always ALWAYS do a nandroid backup before you remove any of the system apps, as some of them might be absolutely needed for Android to run normally
Hi - I 'm a new Transformer Pad owner and I really like it. I have a question about the preinstalled app MyLibrary. I am using it to organize my e-books (from Amazon) into folders as well as to note which books are 1st, 2nd, etc in a series. I took me hours and hours to do this so what I want to do is to back up what I've done in case something goes wrong and I have to restore the tablet. However, I can't find where the MyLibrary files are located in the file manager software and MyLibrary isn't located among the apps available for backup in App Backup. Does anyone know how I can back this up? Any help will be *greatly* appreciated. Thanks.
Its a system app and you have to back it up as such. I don't think you can back up system apps with the asus backup manager but you can use other backup apps like Titanium Backup
You need root, it is in /system/app
How to get root?
Thanks. How do I get root? What is it? Is it risky? I don't want to alter anything on the tablet to do the backup.
Think of rooting as jailbreaking it, you can use my One-click PERI tool, but that is definitely altering the tablet. (software not hardware)
Any other way?
Thanks for your reply. Is there any way to back up system apps without altering the tablet to get root?
No, it's a locked down section of the tablet. :[
You can do it on your computer by extracting it from the blob too.
Let me see if I can find the .apk file for you, I may have it lying around somewhere.
EDIT: Do you need to open MyCloud first to get in it? I have MyCloud
Thanks again
Thanks for continuing to help. I don't need to open MyCloud first. MyLibrary is separate all by itself. Thanks for saying that you will try to find the .apk file but that won't accomplish what I'm trying to do. The thing is I put a lot of work in to organizing my books into folders and making comments on some books that are a part of a series. It's that part (all my changes) that I'm trying to back up in case I have to restore the tablet. How to you extract something from the blob via computer? Thanks.
Oh, I'm sorry there's no easy way to do that without root :/
You'd have to go through a hour process just to get that data, and it'd be impossible to restore without root anyway.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought you wanted the apk.
Titanium backup is a good root app to do this though.
Any other apps?
Thanks for your help again. Do you know of any apps that will allow me to import Kindle books and then organize them, make notations as to which book is first, and then back up that with app backup? Thanks.
I just recently treated myself to an ex-demo unit of this gloriously impractical tablet for reading digital comics on and successfully used odin to flash the proper stock firmware to get rid of demo mode.
I'm quite tempted by the custom roms available, but I'd like to keep some of the stock samsung apps, especially sketchbook for galaxy, and I'm wondering what everyone's opinion on the easiest or best way to do it is.
Do I need to install titanium backup and backup the apps I want to keep? Can I just extract the .apk files I want from the stock firmware image which I still have?
Thanks
IMO the easiest way is:
Step 1 - stay stock, do an nandroid backup in TWRP.
Step 2 - Install Titanium . . do a full backup and debloat by freezing apps and services to get rid of lag and unwanted apps . . if you end up needing it later, defrost.
Step 3 - Install Xposed Framework, and begin experimenting with custom xposed modules to add additional features.
Step 4 - install other root applications to taste.
thanks, i may ultimately end up doing that, but i would like to try different roms as there are a lot of things about the GUI that i don't like on this tablet, and i'm confident enough that i can always get back to stock using odin.
i went ahead and installed cyanogenmod and reinstalled sketchbook from a .apk i created with es file explorer, seems to have worked fine.
Glad it works, sorry that I misunderstood.
I had sketchbook too, but after flashing cm 12 I tried artflow, never went back.
goenieg said:
I had sketchbook too, but after flashing cm 12 I tried artflow, never went back.
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i'll check artflow out, i wanted to keep sketchbook just because i heard this version was made especially for this tablet and its screen.
I've had some success keeping stock apps
Mr Creosote said:
i'll check artflow out, i wanted to keep sketchbook just because i heard this version was made especially for this tablet and its screen.
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I use ES File Explorer. It has a Root explorer function which allows you to backup apps and their data. After backing up the stock app and data I have been able to transfer the app to other devices including custom roms like slimkat on my i9100. One app I've had success with is Navigon. I haven't tried sketchbook, because my tablet isn't rooted yet, but it might work. The backup directory can be customised, but its default location is on internal sd. This process of backing up leaves you with the APK and a zip file with your data. You can install ES File Explorer on the new device/rom and put the APK and zip file back into the backup directory. Then go to backup in root explorer tab of File Explorer and restore app with data, or just app. This may work.
Yep I used es file explorer in the end, and it worked. There seems to be no end to what es can do, i don't know why it doesn't appear on every list of essential/most useful droid apps. Just figured out a couple of days ago that you can use it to stream music wirelessly from a shared folder on your network. I've installed if as a system app on my phone with titanium backup and removed the stock file explorer.