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Any way to restore apps from a Nandroid backup without affecting newly-installed ROM?

I recently updated from DamageControl 1 to 2. Before updating, I did a Nandroid backup of my Sprint Hero.
I tried to flash the new ROM over the existing one (so as to retain my apps, settings, etc). That didn't work, as the phone would hang at the HTC "Simply Brilliant" screen when booting up.
I then did a wipe via the recovery menu, and re-flashed the latest DC ROM. This worked fine, but obviously I'm without all my apps and settings.
I know if I do a Nandroid restore, I could get everything back, but I would obviously lose my upgraded ROM.
So what I'm trying to do is find a way to extract my apps from the Nandroid backup and manually install them on the Hero.
Most apps I can simply redownload, and while it might take a little bit, it's not a huge deal. One paid app in particular, though -- Smart Keyboard Pro -- won't show up, while other previously-purchased apps do.
So my ultimate goal is to restore my apps from the Nandroid backup. Is there a way to extract the backup images and manually install the APKs or something like that?
I've tried searching XDA, but I couldn't come up with anything other than the full restore that Nandroid does. Again, that would work, but I would then be downgrading my ROM.
Thanks in advance!

You can try Titanium Backup or AppMonster (formerly AppManager) to backup your apps. Titanium backs up user data too

Wufei said:
You can try Titanium Backup or AppMonster (formerly AppManager) to backup your apps. Titanium backs up user data too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using AppManager but I heard Titamium Backup will do alot more .
With DC1 a2sd was enabled (Ithink) therefore all apps were saved on the sdcard in Android/data
I would strongly suggest using one of the apps above to save everything. Also everytime I install a ROM I go and download backup app I used and restore.

I'd restore the old ROM, backup apps with Titanium Backup (choose Batch from the menu, then (All User & System Apps and Data). Then put the new ROM back, and restore your apps and settings one at a time from Titanium Backup. I'd be lost without Titanium Backup.

you do realize that this thread is over a year old right?

A year old is ok, you never know if someone else has this same thought. You know if the roms have the same framework you could just move the data.img file to a new folder where the backup folder is at and edit the nandroid.md5 file by removing all the lines for the other img files excluding the data.img file. Then boot to recovery and choose the new folder from the restore backup menu. Works for me.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

File Expert will back up apps, too. It also has a setting to automatically back up an .apk for every app you install and/or uninstall. File Expert just backs up the .apk files into a folder called "Backup Apps". It does not back up app data.
Also, Titanium Backup will extract apps from a nandroid backup. I am not sure whether it will restore an app with its data from a nandroid backup, but it will let you extract an app.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Q] Phone Backup

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

back up when switching between roms.

hi there guys,
I have some questions about how to make a total back-up of your rom, so you don't have to setup your apps and stuff like that, when you wanna try something new. Setting everything up when I wanna go back,is holding me back.
hope this is not a total repost, if it is just show me the old thread, cause I couldn't find it.

Errr... A classical Nandroid (whole Rom with Kernel, Apps and Settings) and/or Titanium Backup (Apps and Settings - possible to transfer data between different roms) should offer everything you need
...via Tapatalk

when I bake a backup with clockwork, I still need to set everything up, and install my apps again. What am I doing wrong?

Safidk said:
when I bake a backup with clockwork, I still need to set everything up, and install my apps again. What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always backup and restore from recovery menu of clockwork, this means when restoring everything is put back as it was.
Not sure why this isn't working for you
Sent from my HTC Desire S

I downloaded (and paid for) the newest version of clockwork manager from the marked. How do you do it, just from the app or do you boot in recovery? When you say full recovery does that include everything, so you don't have to setup anything?

Yes mate, boot into recovery, select "backup and restore", then backup - this will save a full copy of your system as it stands. When you backup from the recovery menu it will put everything back exactly as it was when you backed it up - ie all apps & data already setup
Sent from my HTC Desire S

and before I recover I need to do a complete wipe, right. System, catch and factory?

No.. you dont need to wipe before restrore.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA Premium App

ok, tnen I'm gonna try again. Don't see why its not working for me. There's not a secieal setup I need to do? I haven't done anything else than installing the app ;-)

Confusion?
I believe that there is a couple of differing questions are being asked and answered here.
A Nandroind backup or full device backup (excluding RADIO) will enable you to restore your device back to the exact state that it was in when taken. All the phone partitions SYSTEM/DATA/BOOT/CACHE/etc are all backed up. Therefore restoring one of these backups will ensure that the ROM, kernel and data will be restored together and the phone will be operational.
A Titanium Backup backs up applications and setup data that enables you to easily restore your installed applications and configuration. After a factory reset or a re-install of the same ROM.
It can often be problematic to use a titanium backup after changing the version of the ROM you used or when moving from one ROM to a completely different one. In fact quite often ROM cooks recommend that you don't use a Titanium backup restore in the setup of their ROM.
That being said I still take both types of backups on my device. As titanium backups are useful for restoring individual applications to a previous state if they encounter a problem or corruption.
I believe that the Nandroid backup is the most useful recovery tool we have available to us and always take one, before flashing any new ROM or ZIP file, better to be safe than sorry.
Although I'd also recommend that all personal data ie calendar & contacts should be backed up by sync'ing to the cloud and never just kept locally on the device.

[Q] I have a Stock ROM backup. What should I do with it?

I thought when I first flashed a custom ROM that it might useful to keep a backup of stock.
But right now this backup bogging down my sd card. Will it still work if I copy the folder with the backup in my computer and use it afterwards? Or should I delete it and use the method described in these threads to bring it back to stock if I need to?

As long as you do not change the name of the backup folder you should be ok copying it over and moving it back if you need it.
Recommend using a cable to copy it instead of wifi. Any slight change or corruption will change the md5 sum and the backup will fall to restore.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium

Yes you won't have any problems, just store it on your PC.
In fact I leave all my backups just in case something goes wrong.

pzabet said:
I thought when I first flashed a custom ROM that it might useful to keep a backup of stock.
But right now this backup bogging down my sd card. Will it still work if I copy the folder with the backup in my computer and use it afterwards? Or should I delete it and use the method described in these threads to bring it back to stock if I need to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with the others, you can keep the Backup on the PC.
However, I do not find the need of it even after Reverting back to Stock (with the methods in the threads). Since, on using the RUU , the phone is just like a factory fresh phone ! U need to set everything up again (& since u r Unrooted & S-ON , u can't Restore the stock Backup as well).
{Contacts / Calendar can be synced via Google Contacts / Calendar &
SMS's can be backed up / Restored via the Inbuilt Backup & Restore of many 3rd Party Messaging Apps (e.g. Go SMS Pro) }

Well, I'd like to thank you all for your answers, I will store the backup on my pc because my opinion is that I might need it(you never know)

[Q] How to restore Helium Files

So I just got an HTC One, and I'm trying to restore some of my app data (mostly save games... note I do NOT want a full backup that's why I used Helium because I heard it can backup specific apps only) from my old Nexus 4. Since I didn't pay for Helium Premium, I just copied the carbon folder (I assume that is where it's storing the backups) from my Nexus 4 and transferred it to the PC. I then plugged my HTC One and copied the carbon folder in the root of the Internal Storage.
However, when I click "Restore" on Helium on my HTC One, it says it cannot detect any backup files. I also tried manually copying the files from carbon to the data folder and overwrote the files there, but when I start the game it still sends me to the beginning as if I started from scratch. Should I put the carbon folder elsewhere or something? I really need help because I do not want to start these games from the beginning again

Same issue here, except I use a Nexus 7 and only this Nexus 7. Used Helium to make a backup of some apps, stored the folder on my PC. Completely reset the Nexus 7 and transferred back the folder but Helium doesn't see the carbon folder with backup apps in it. If I backup a new app it does place the backup in that specific folder...

Helium restore issues
I had the same issue as you both. I fixed it the hard way. I had to download and install each app that I wanted to restore (from Play store). I started each app (so that Helium would see them) without any configuration. Then I did another backup of all the apps I wanted. I then copied all of the .ab files from the original backup to the new backup folders. Restore... voila!

gmouser said:
I had the same issue as you both. I fixed it the hard way. I had to download and install each app that I wanted to restore (from Play store). I started each app (so that Helium would see them) without any configuration. Then I did another backup of all the apps I wanted. I then copied all of the .ab files from the original backup to the new backup folders. Restore... voila!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is probably the most fool-proof solution. I do have a question about text messages, though. Everything else seemed to work (thanks for this solution, definitely helpful to at least confirm data). Anyways - the one thing I can't seem to figure out is how to restore text messages (com.android.providers.telephony.ab) - I've tried to do it as a whole app using the PC interface, tried copying the folder as a replacement via Android File Transfer to the 'carbon' folder, etc.
When I try to restore via helium server, it quickly shows me everything as restored but I don't see the messages. When I try to do it manually (e.g. force copy), I don't see an option under "Restore and Sync" to actually select messaging.
Am I missing something stupid / obvious? The raw data seems to be there (for example, call logs were uploaded just fine, text messages seem to have an issue).
--Dan

So I came up with a solution based on what works for others. Why this works when it didn't previously is beyond me, but hopefully someone else can use it if individual parts of their Helium backup don't work properly (in theory it should work for any app / SQL dataset). The whole point of Helium is that we're running non-rooted phones and so Titanium Backup or the like aren't applicable. For reference, I'm running an N4 to OSX 10.7.x
1. Use the Helium Server to create a full backup.
2. Wipe phone or whatever you need to do (I had to do a factory reset for Google since it's an N4 and my proximity sensor is dead).
3. Install the apps you had previously via Play Store (pain in the a**).
4. Run Helium server and upload the backup data.
5. Update apps as needed (should be auto but who knows for individual stuff).
6. Check app data in apps. Texts are obviously easy to see for me. Hopefully everything restored nicely for you here.
***Now for the bit for people who got corrupted restores.
7. Unzip the backup file on your computer, select the .ab files that correspond to the missing / corrupted restores and then zip those into a new file on your computer (for step 9). Keep these files handy in unzipped form as well for step 10.
8. Perform a new Helium backup of those sections onto the internal SD card (yes it will be blank, worry not).
9. (Optional step): Run Helium server and upload that new zip file (with the stuff that didn't make it) alone. Try restore. Unlikely to work but worth a shot.
10. Running Android File Transfer, find the SD card, find the folder 'carbon' and then find the corresponding sub-folders that have the modules that were corrupted. Replace the SD card backups of the broken modules with the good ones from your computer.
11. Run Helium restore again, but only for the sections you want (I swear, for me Messaging didn't show up the first few times but after step 10 it did).
12. Wait, hoepfully it works well. I would reboot after running the restore to a) kill Helium and b) confirm functionality.
FWIW, my telephony.ab was 1.8MB and took SIX hours to restore. Seriously. Yeah yeah, that's a lot of texts but six hours? I've since added "SMS Backup & Restore" to my phone and will probably just use that, map out my phone layout and functionality and just manually replace apps from now on since most data is in the cloud. You lose some stuff, but prima facie it's boat tons easier.
Hopefully that helps someone else who had the same issues.
Best,
--Dan

please tell me the manual way,it doesn't restore sms backup and showing error in restoring subway surfers app

bfettd said:
So I came up with a solution based on what works for others. Why this works when it didn't previously is beyond me, but hopefully someone else can use it if individual parts of their Helium backup don't work properly (in theory it should work for any app / SQL dataset). The whole point of Helium is that we're running non-rooted phones and so Titanium Backup or the like aren't applicable. For reference, I'm running an N4 to OSX 10.7.x
1. Use the Helium Server to create a full backup.
2. Wipe phone or whatever you need to do (I had to do a factory reset for Google since it's an N4 and my proximity sensor is dead).
3. Install the apps you had previously via Play Store (pain in the a**).
4. Run Helium server and upload the backup data.
5. Update apps as needed (should be auto but who knows for individual stuff).
6. Check app data in apps. Texts are obviously easy to see for me. Hopefully everything restored nicely for you here.
***Now for the bit for people who got corrupted restores.
7. Unzip the backup file on your computer, select the .ab files that correspond to the missing / corrupted restores and then zip those into a new file on your computer (for step 9). Keep these files handy in unzipped form as well for step 10.
8. Perform a new Helium backup of those sections onto the internal SD card (yes it will be blank, worry not).
9. (Optional step): Run Helium server and upload that new zip file (with the stuff that didn't make it) alone. Try restore. Unlikely to work but worth a shot.
10. Running Android File Transfer, find the SD card, find the folder 'carbon' and then find the corresponding sub-folders that have the modules that were corrupted. Replace the SD card backups of the broken modules with the good ones from your computer.
11. Run Helium restore again, but only for the sections you want (I swear, for me Messaging didn't show up the first few times but after step 10 it did).
12. Wait, hoepfully it works well. I would reboot after running the restore to a) kill Helium and b) confirm functionality.
--Dan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know super old thread - Just wanted to thank you for the above. Before migrating to a new Nvidia Shield I used Helium to backup to my Mac - however when I tried to restore onto the new device it kept saying "Invalid backup file" (Any idea why?) Anyway, you're approach saved me! Yea bit of pain to download all the apps again first, but at least this above worked, so thanks!