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[Q] is wipe necessery when instaling new rom?

i don't want to loose any of my data or apps, but i want to have a new ROM. i'm just wondering if the wipe option is necessery when loading your new Rom on your device?

Would help if you stated what OS and device you are talking about.
But in general, no. Flashing ROMs formats the memory. Even if you could keep data on your phone, you wouldn't want to. It would almost certainly cause problems with the new ROM.
There are easy ways to backup personal data when you flash.

Is it posible to flash without data loss?

Is it posible to flash with data loss?
Or can i backup my apps data and then restore it when i flash to another Rom?

It's not possible to flash a ROM on top of a previous ROM w/o expecting any trouble. Either you get bootloops, hangs, or all sorts of force closes with apps. Backup apps w/ Titanium Backup. TB will save the apps and data to a folder on the SD card, from which it will restore the apps when you click "Batch Restore" after flashing a new ROM.

thanks for the advise gonna do it tonight

Borat38 said:
It's not possible to flash a ROM on top of a previous ROM w/o expecting any trouble. Either you get bootloops, hangs, or all sorts of force closes with apps. Backup apps w/ Titanium Backup. TB will save the apps and data to a folder on the SD card, from which it will restore the apps when you click "Batch Restore" after flashing a new ROM.
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I've flashed about 100 CM7 nightly builds and release candidates on top of each other without losing data so that isn't strictly true! ROMs made by different chefs that are significantly different from each will need a data wipe though, and TB is useful to some in that situation.

Well i want to go from LeoMar75 Rom Revolution 2.1 to 2.2

I use rom manager and have sometimes updated my rom without wipping my data, but it's not always stabel.
I would recommend first making a backup of you data with titinium backup or mybackup and then updating your om

DirkGently1 said:
I've flashed about 100 CM7 nightly builds and release candidates on top of each other without losing data so that isn't strictly true! ROMs made by different chefs that are significantly different from each will need a data wipe though, and TB is useful to some in that situation.
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Sorry, I should've been more clear that when switching from one ROM to an entirely different one, you should wipe. But then again, even with ROMs that are of the same series, sometimes the differences are so great that it's best to wipe clean before flashing. I'm speaking from my experience with StarBurst.

[Q] Flashing ROM's Question (Wipe and TB)

I've flashed almost every ROM available, both TW and JB, and I am curious if I just need to wipe everything 3x or if I should also format /system?? Also, when restoring apps with TB, is there a way to have it automatically add the apps to the homescreens as they were before?
Thanks!

Switching to a custom ROM and keeping all apps/data

So I am considering possibly installing one the CM ROMs on my Explorer (I guess CM10 if there's a stable ROM). However, I don't want to lose any of my apps or data (e.g. saves in games, settings in various apps, messages, contacts etc.). Right now I am on stock ROM with DarkTremor's a2sd script and all my apps and data on the SD-EXT partition. What would be the best method to make the transition? Backup all apps with Titanium Backup and restore once I install the new ROM? Or is there some way to install a new ROM and keep the apps on my EXT partition working?
If there's no easy way to do it, I'll probably stick to stock ROM. I don't really want to have to reinstall all my apps manually.

Some of your data is in sdcard, so no worries, contacts should be synced to Google, and messages can be backed up with Titanium Backup(Pro?).
Titanium Backup Free can back up and restore apps and app data(includes settings), but not batch, so you have to get Pro or back up/restore all your apps one by one.
However, transition from Sense GB to CM JB/ICS is super-massive, so don't report any bugs if you choose to restore system data.

SifJar said:
So I am considering possibly installing one the CM ROMs on my Explorer (I guess CM10 if there's a stable ROM). However, I don't want to lose any of my apps or data (e.g. saves in games, settings in various apps, messages, contacts etc.). Right now I am on stock ROM with DarkTremor's a2sd script and all my apps and data on the SD-EXT partition. What would be the best method to make the transition? Backup all apps with Titanium Backup and restore once I install the new ROM? Or is there some way to install a new ROM and keep the apps on my EXT partition working?
If there's no easy way to do it, I'll probably stick to stock ROM. I don't really want to have to reinstall all my apps manually.
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Titanium backup is the best tool for backup and restoring apps. Get the Pro version its worth it, i change ROMs like in a day or two so i always have a backup with data of all my apps and whether u are coming from gb to ics/jb or going back to gb , just restore the apps. And dont ever restore system apps on a new ROM it is not recommended and csn create instability.
I hope this helps
sent from xda premium using my fingers

I already have TB Pro, so no worries there. Thanks for the reassurance, I may look into this further. I've been getting more and more fed up of GB when I keep seeing new devices with ICS or JB, think it might be time to make the switch.
So I can restore all user apps and data, but I should leave out system data? Sounds OK, I don't think I'll lose much by not restoring system data.

Yup I do the same.. Just the system apps.. and keep a copy of the titanium backup ( with apk as i use the free version ) on my comp.. System data wont mostly restore as GB and CM10 are almost incompatible.. you will get loads of fcs..
Hit thanks If i helped !

akshat.shenoy said:
Yup I do the same.. Just the system apps.. and keep a copy of the titanium backup ( with apk as i use the free version ) on my comp.. System data wont mostly restore as GB and CM10 are almost incompatible.. you will get loads of fcs..
Hit thanks If i helped !
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you do not restore system data on any ROM. It will cause FCs. You should only restore apps and app data

[Q] How does a custom recovery works?

Ok, so i'm new to all this stuff about custom recoverys and ROMs. How exactly do they work?
Let's say i make a custom recovery image of my current ROM, wich is stock, does it just backup the OS or my personal files (music, photos, apps, etc.) too?
I'm asking this primarly because i want to upgrade my phone, but to do so i have to flash the stock firmware because i've modified some system files. Wich bring to my other question, flashing ROMs wipe user data? i've read some split responses to this, some people say it does some say it doesn't.
And my final question, let's say i made a backup, wiped my phone flashed stock firmware and updated, now how i recover my data from the
backed up ROM, i mean it is a different version, does it have an option to just restore user data?
Thanks in advance, and sorry if these are too much questions.

it'll back up system, data, boot.img and dalvik cache.
your sd partition isn't backed up, but all the stuff on it will be readable by whatever new rom you put on it (unless you wipe EVERYTHING [not a good idea]).
when you're changing roms/etc, you want to place the rom.zip + gapps.zip (and custom kernel.zip if you're going to use one) on your sd partition. you do this because usb storage mostly doesn't work with custom recoveries as of yet on this device meaning once you've wiped, if you don't have a rom on your sd partition you're mildly screwed in that you'd have to reflash everything from a stock image (meaning you will lose root, all your personal files and whatever rom was on the phone - basically everything goes back to stock bar the bootloader).
e: as for restoring all apps data, use something like titanium backup. i always have a backup on my sd partition of all my current apps (plus wifi passwords, accounts info, sms messages etc to save time/effort when restoring after putting a new rom on). i also always set TB to backup all modified/new data every night at about 3am, then upload the backup to google drive so that if i either brick my phone or accidentally wipe everything, at least i can get back to where i left off.

If you forget to place the ROM zip, and have formatted the device, it is not necessary to flash stock. You use adb side load which is present in every recovery.

in that case i need to remember that for future use - i hardly ever use my pc with my phone now as you can pretty much do anything (update recovery etc) on the phone alone.
that, and i'm on windows 8.1 which afaik doesn't play nicely with fastboot or adb.

twist3d0n3 said:
....and i'm on windows 8.1 which afaik doesn't play nicely with fastboot or adb.
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....i think this is a rumor. Never ever had any problems on W8.1

^ good to know, thanks