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When ICS OTA drops, how do I handle my stock root...

I have the stock T-Mobile simply rooted.
What is the best procedure for me to retain root once ICS drops AND be able to use titanium to restore all my apps and settings?
Eg
If I download ICS, I will lose root but retain my apps and settings.
When ICS is eventually rooted I can then root my Nexus S but that wipes all my data. I won't be able to backup first, because that required the root I lost when I updated a while before. Assuming a week or month until root is released, this means my pre update backup will be outdated.
So should I wait until a root is discovered before even accepting the OTA update? Then I can backup, update, root, restore, all in one day?
Or will there be a root that doesn't wipe the device?
Any better ideas? Thanks!
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Wait for a stock rooted ROM..
Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

Then just flash it and I will keep all my settings and apps?

No, if you flash a new rom, you will have to use Titanium to restore app and data. As far as settings, I think you'll have to reset.

How come? Flashing an updated ROM OTA doesn't usually wipe apps and settings. Why would flashing a stock rooted ROM to an already rooted device behave differently and wipe them?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Because while an ota is built to deliberately avoid a wipe, most roms require a good old wipe to run well because ur coming off a possibly very different rom whereas ota is coming from a cleanly stock rom or it wouldn't accept update. Make sense?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G

Update to ICS for nexus s 4G

Sorry I've been out of the loop for a bit. I have my phone rooted but on stock GB rom. If I try updating the stock ICS rom OTA I believe I will get an error. What is the easiest way to update and still keep my current data? I don't mind if I loose root. Can I unroot then instal the update OTA? Any suggestions welcome, please help!

I actually unrooted and then updated to ICS. After keeping stock for a couple of days I ended up rooting the phone so I could add the tap-to-focus feature to the camera.
Or you could just flash the stock ICS rom that's available in the development section.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

bruce wayne, if I update from the development section i don't need to wipe data? i thought i saw that in the directions? thanks again.

jojo08 said:
bruce wayne, if I update from the development section i don't need to wipe data? i thought i saw that in the directions? thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ideally you should wipe data. But if you're already rooted, just create a backup with whichever recovery you normally use. Then try to update with the stock ICS rom update posted by swampgoblin. You should be ok. But I do recommend that you wipe cache and Dalvik cache.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

U could make a nandroid, wipe, update, & selective restore data only. at least this way, if it all goes wacky, u got a current nandroid to restore...
sent from my dark iced, skanky, t11 infused ns4g

OTA

If I want the ota do I have to lock fastboot or can I just flash a fully stock rom. I saved my stock rom from when I first rooted.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

The bootloader can stay unlocked.
Sent by pocket technology.

Cool as long as I have the original rom, kernel and ect...... I think it was 2.3.6. I don't need to lock bootloader thx
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

You can't flash an OTA on anything but stock recovery. You would be better off waiting 10 minutes for a flashable .zip to be posted on the forums so you don't have to do anything but wipe data.

Since you are going to restore to 2.3.6, you will probably be able to update the phone to 4.0.4 atm. And if that works, then the OTA for Jelly Bean will probably work too!

063_XOBX said:
You can't flash an OTA on anything but stock recovery. You would be better off waiting 10 minutes for a flashable .zip to be posted on the forums so you don't have to do anything but wipe data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong
Again in order to manually flash a official ota you NEED a custom recovery. It no longer works on stock recovery. The ota installs on stock recovery IF you get it pushed to you. It will fail to automatically flash ( as far I know) if the ota is pushed to your device and you click on reboot and install with a custom recovery.
You NEVER have to wipe data when applying a ota.

How Do I Backup the Operating System?

I rooted my S3. I have not unlocked it.
I would like to backup the android operating system, the apps, and the data before I allow the recent OTA update.
Based on my research, I believe I can use titanium to backup everything except the operating system. How do I backup the operating system?
I tried the Volume Up/Power/Home Button restart. It gives me the option to restore but not to backup.
What am I missing??

chinook9 said:
I rooted my S3. I have not unlocked it.
I would like to backup the android operating system, the apps, and the data before I allow the recent OTA update.
Based on my research, I believe I can use titanium to backup everything except the operating system. How do I backup the operating system?
I tried the Volume Up/Power/Home Button restart. It gives me the option to restore but not to backup.
What am I missing??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have to install a custom recovery.

prdog1 said:
Have to install a custom recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
prdog1
Thank you for the speedy reply. I did a quick search and found quite a bit written on installing a custom recovery including on the S3.
It appears that I can only back up to a custom ROM such as ClockworkMod Recovery or TWRP Recovery and not the base ROM as it is on the phone now. Is that correct?
I have ROM manager on the phone so I expect the ClockworkMod Recovery would be the way to go.

Nope, CWM and TWRP are custom recoveries. You'll have to install one of those in order to backup. Go onto the app store and search for EZ Recovery. Use that app to install the recoveries(it's the easiest way for someone new). Then you just boot into your recovery and do a backup of your current setup.

Download EZ Recovery and flash CWM then boot into recovery and choose the backup option.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

Custom recovery will backup stock rom. You will not be able to install any OTA until untill you Odin back to stock.

Thank you for the replies.
I guess I should have included in the initial post that all I have done is root the phone......I think.
I never unlocked the phone with Ez-Unlocker
I never used Rom-Manager either.
I did install SD Speed Increase and increased the SD cache size from 128kb to 1024 kb.
Thats it.
Does this information change the previous recommendations?

No, just install EZ Recovery and follow the directions listed in one of the guides in the stickies.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

chinook9 said:
Thank you for the replies.
I guess I should have included in the initial post that all I have done is root the phone......I think.
I never unlocked the phone with Ez-Unlocker
I never used Rom-Manager either.
I did install SD Speed Increase and increased the SD cache size from 128kb to 1024 kb.
Thats it.
Does this information change the previous recommendations?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, if you have a custom recovery you cannot accept an OTA. The install will fail. You will have to Odin back to stock in order to take the OTA.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Thank you for the input.
There is a lot of information on this topic but its not easy to determine which of it applies to my situation. I feel pretty good about being able to Odin back to stock but I'm not sure I want to take the risk of doing that (probably not much risk) just to get the latest update.
I expect the best thing for me to do is decide to either 1) go ahead and install CM10 (I think that's the one I would want) or 2) go back to stock and stick with the Verizon software. I'd like to get Jelly Bean now, but I'm not sure its worth the risk. We'll see.
Thanks again!

If u use ez recovery and flash back the stock recovery u can then accept the ota just fine. As long as u haven't messed with any system files you are good. Then just re root it once ota is done.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

musclehead84 said:
If u use ez recovery and flash back the stock recovery u can then accept the ota just fine. As long as u haven't messed with any system files you are good. Then just re root it once ota is done.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info.
I have installed EZRecovery and it seems pretty straightforward. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go for a Jelly Bean ROM now or just wait.
I'll just keep reading until I'm comfortable that first, Jelly Bean will give me improvements worth the risk, and second, I won't brick the phone.
I have been fooling with computers since the 70s but Android is somewhat different and it will take a while to learn something about the architecture.
Thanks again.

chinook9 said:
Thanks for the info.
I have installed EZRecovery and it seems pretty straightforward. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go for a Jelly Bean ROM now or just wait.
I'll just keep reading until I'm comfortable that first, Jelly Bean will give me improvements worth the risk, and second, I won't brick the phone.
I have been fooling with computers since the 70s but Android is somewhat different and it will take a while to learn something about the architecture.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If new I would flash an ICS rom first and get you a stable daily driver setup and backed up. Regardless of what you read all JB builds are buggy to an extent since they are all ports. The advantage of Android is as long as you have a stable Nandroid you can experiment with more advanced ports. Backup IEMI also and be careful jumping back and forth between AOSP and TW based roms. This is where the most problems come up. From what I've seen if flashed AOSP base it is best to Odin back to stock before going back to Touchwiz.

HI F2 said:
Download EZ Recovery and flash CWM then boot into recovery and choose the backup option.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or Twrp
I prefer twrp as it will allow you to name the backup from within recovery as well as some things cwm doesnt do.

Return to Stock

I'm sure this is discussed already but I can't seem to find it so if someone can help me or point me in the right direction.
I have a VZW GS3 that I have rooted, unlocked the boot loader and flashed CWM recovery. I then made a nandroid.
The main reason I did this was because I wanted Jelly Bean, and since Verizon is the slowest, I didn't want to wait so I installed custom ROMs.
Now that Verizon has released JB, I want to go back to my nandroid and then use the OTA firmware update service to upgrade.
Am I missing anything along the way that's essential for this to work?
Will the updated software re-root and/or relock my bootloader?
Will this automatically update the Baseband from my current VRLG7 to whatever the new one is?

One other thing, Will I still have CWM recovery after this happens? or will it revert back to stock recovery? or do I need to manually do anything to the recovery?

You're doing this to ultimately stay stock? Do you intend on flashing roms again or no? If you did a nandroid just after ONLY rooting and unlocking bootloader then restore it. Here's a step by step:
1) boot into CWM, restore your rooted, stock nandroid
2) Download EZ recovery, flash stock recovery
3) Wait for OTA
The OTA will relock your bootloader and unroot your phone. The JB OTA will also update your modem, and everything else, to VRBLK3.
One other thing, Will I still have CWM recovery after this happens? or will it revert back to stock recovery? or do I need to manually do anything to the recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you will lose CWM if you do what I detail above. The OTA will fail if you still have CWM installed.

SlimSnoopOS said:
You're doing this to ultimately stay stock? Do you intend on flashing roms again or no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the time being I intend on remaining stock, but I still want to root. Maybe once CM10.1 becomes stable, I'll go back to it, as of now I've had too many bugs with 10 nightlys and stable and 10.1 nightlys.
SlimSnoopOS said:
If you did a nandroid just after ONLY rooting and unlocking bootloader then restore it
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Click to collapse
I don't recall, but it's possible I did it after flashing CWM recovery, would that make a difference?
Thanks for your help!

levilib said:
For the time being I intend on remaining stock, but I still want to root. Maybe once CM10.1 becomes stable, I'll go back to it, as of now I've had too many bugs with 10 nightlys and stable and 10.1 nightlys.
I don't recall, but it's possible I did it after flashing CWM recovery, would that make a difference?
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah I was just verifying to see if you modified any system settings or apps while on ICS TW. You should be in the clear as long as you reset CWM to stock recovery if all you did was root, unlock, then perform a nandroid.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

SlimSnoopOS said:
Nah I was just verifying to see if you modified any system settings or apps while on ICS TW. You should be in the clear as long as you reset CWM to stock recovery if all you did was root, unlock, then perform a nandroid.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
before I restore the nandroid in CWM, do I need to do any wiping? cache, dalvik or full wipe?

levilib said:
before I restore the nandroid in CWM, do I need to do any wiping? cache, dalvik or full wipe?
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Click to collapse
Absolutely.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

so which wipe(s) do I need to do?

levilib said:
before I restore the nandroid in CWM, do I need to do any wiping? cache, dalvik or full wipe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you do not, the nan will overwrite everything anyways. If you feel better then factory reset and clear caches, but it's not necessary.
Sent from my VS920 4G using xda app-developers app

thanks

I followed the instructions above and I'm back on my rooted TW.
When i try and update i get the following message:
Service Unavailable
To check for system updates, go to Settings > About device when service is available
What's wrong, how do i fix that?

searched around on google and a lot of people had the same warning error, multiple solutions were offered but none of them worked.
in the end, I ended up installing from odin completely stock unrooted, locked bootloader etc 4.0.4 (as f i want to return my phone to verizon) and once i did that it automatically updated to 4.1.1