[Q] Need help with custom ROMs and Back-ups - General Questions and Answers

Hello. I am in need of some help. I have a rooted LG G2 with TWRP on and I want to flash a custom Rom on it but I have a few questions.
1) What ROM should I flash that's compatible with my phone?
2) Will I need to wipe all my data?
3) How do I backup EVERYTHING on my phone?
4) At other suggestions on what I should do prior to flashing a custom ROM?

1) Take a look in the development section of your device to see all the Roms and see what's best for you.
2)Yes, you will need to wipe your data, or your new ROM can cause severe problems, due to incompatibilities, etc.
3)There are 2 options here, you can either use TWRP to make a nandroid which backs up everything, including user apps and app data, system partition, etc. If something goes wrong, you can restore your nandroid and everything will be as you never touched anything.
You can also use an app called Titanium backup, which backs up all apps and data, but you need to backup and restore within the app.
My advice: make full backup using both methods, so you have a full system backup, and a backup on a per app basis.
4) Before flashing, make sure you've read up on your device and how to flash etc, so you are prepared and know what to do in case something goes wrong. If you need help, feel free to post here on XDA
Other than that, please make a backup before you do anything to your device, I cannot stress that enough. Have fun, it truly is a fun process tinkering with devices
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

Related

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] Preparing to flash CM10

Background: I have a nexus s 19020A running stock rom with root. I'm looking to switch to CM10 (stable) as google is no longer supporting this device and JB generally runs pretty slowly. Backups can be performed with titanium backup without issue. What I plan on backing up is apps and app data. General setting don't really matter (only settings for email, gmail, pertinent stuff like that). I use CWM and plan on flashing everything through recovery
My questions:
1) Can anyone link me to the correct version of gapps to flash
2) How should I flash everything? Would this be the correct procedure?
a) NAND backup using CWM. b) Factory reset and wipe of dalvik cache. c) flash CM10, gapps, SU. d) Boot and restore with titanium backup?
3) Would a backup and restore of user apps and system data using titanium backup by recommended? If not, how should I go about backing up everything in preparation for the flash?
As you can see, I'm relatively new to flashing roms. Any help is greatly appreciated, and if I missed anything (backup-wise, flash-wise, or other), please let me know
Its pretty easy to flash a ROM. This tutorial will help you with it. Just follow the complete tutorial step to step and you will be running CM10 within 15 minutes.
The important thing while backing up is to sync your contacts with Google, this way your contacts will be real safe and you can easily get them to you as soon as you add your Google account to your device. To backup text messages, this app is recommended.
While in case of apps and app data, Titanium backup is to be considered as a worthy choice.

Questions about backups

I have some backups using old recovery, some backups using Rom Manager, and some using TWRP
Can i just put them all into one folder ... will they be flashable using any method i choose? Or will i need to restore them using only the app i used to create the backup?
Im like a lot of people and keep multiple rom's backed up. I'd like to switch between them back and forth.
When I go into recovery and restore a specific backup, so i need to do a wipe first? or will it automatically override what it needs to?
If i backup the rom using recovery or TWRP .. does it also backup all user app data?
meaning, is it redundant to also backup my apps using titanium backup, if i have them freshly backed up with the ROM?
Last question, somewhat unrelated ...
a thread like this one, does it go here under Q/A forum? or does it go in Development forum?
Im asking because on other forums, usually anything root related, even questions, would go into the root section of the forum, not the general QA section.
Just want to know for future reference, to not piss people off lol
1: each backup is independent. Cwm backups are not compatible with twrp backups/vice versa.
2: you can swap around restoring nandroid backups without wiping. Recovery wipes for you before it restores.
3: titanium is for restoring apps generally when flashing a different rom or when doing a clean install. Using a recovery based data restore is generally only recommended on the same rom/nightly. Titanium is an indispensable tool, learn it! Never restore data on a different rom/base with titanium. Recovery data restores are hit or miss. It's an experience thing you'll need to iron out and completely rom based. In general, if it's not a nightly, don't do it, stick w/titanium until you understand exactly what the differences are.
4: you posted correctly in q&a. You would have gotten flagged posting this in development. Development is for tech development, not user knowledge developing!
Hope that helps
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
thanks so much!

Methods to Move to Other ROMs

What methods are recommended to move from one ROM to another? I know how to backup and flash, but configuring everything all over again, from Gmail accounts, WiFi networks, ringtones and so on is a hassle which causes me to hesitate to explore other ROM's.
For those of you who stay on top of the latest and greatest, do you have any tricks that you can share? I'm familiar with root and some of the gates it opens, but I don't have any programming background whatsoever and I'm only good at following a how-to guide.
I've heard of Titanium but I'm confused what it does. I've heard arguments that variables of ROM's, odexed versus deodexed, and so on cause Titanium to not always work.
Any help is appreciated!
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app
Before I switch ROMs, I usually use Titanium Backup to backup all user apps + data. I don't back up system apps because I don't know if that would be the best move when switching to ROMs that don't have cetain system functions of the previous ROM. While I'm backing up the user apps + data, I make a nandroid backup with TWRP. Then I flash the ROM, restore my apps, then play with the settings for about 10 minutes getting everything to where I want. It all takes me about 15 minutes to backup apps + data and nandroid backup, then about an hour to do everything after.
I do something similar. I backup my apps using Titanium Backup, and I to ONLY back up apps not system data ive done both ways and when I backed up the SYS Data I would sometimes get force close issues etc. I also use SMS backup/restore and backup my text messages (make sure u are backing up all this stuff to the external SD card not internal SD), I also use a file manager to make sure I got everything off internal memory an move it to external SD. Then I boot into Recovery Mode, wipe data, wipe dalvik, cache etc, ill flash my new ROM and then wipe dalvik and cache again (maybe pointless but I always have succes so Im not changing my ways now lol) after all that then I reboot and wait for it all to settle in, then sign into everything etc, and then for good measure, after its all done I power off and take batt out for 30 sec and then put it back in and power on and im good!
Been doing it this same way for years now and this is what works for me.
If u need help just let me know.
Sent from my Sexy Samsung S5
burowyako said:
What methods are recommended to move from one ROM to another? I know how to backup and flash, but configuring everything all over again, from Gmail accounts, WiFi networks, ringtones and so on is a hassle which causes me to hesitate to explore other ROM's.
For those of you who stay on top of the latest and greatest, do you have any tricks that you can share? I'm familiar with root and some of the gates it opens, but I don't have any programming background whatsoever and I'm only good at following a how-to guide.
I've heard of Titanium but I'm confused what it does. I've heard arguments that variables of ROM's, odexed versus deodexed, and so on cause Titanium to not always work.
Any help is appreciated!
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like to know as well; on my Samsung Moment I could backup and restore data when flashing a new ROM, which quickly restored ringtones, call and message logs, etc. But this doesn't seem to be an option with current generation recoveries?

Followup questions about twrp vs twrpless

Hello again good people,
You may remember me asking questions in this forum recently, thank you again for all those who replied.
I'm back again after waiting for the official twrp to be released and reading all the forum posts in the guides section for the threads about twrpless-root (magisk) and the stickied twrp root guide by Funk Wizard. I am still a bit confused about a couple of things though. And still deciding which way is the best for me now that I still have a stock device. Please correct any mistakes I make.
When I root, in case something goes wrong, I cannot do a system settings -> factory reset. (Because it would softbrick?)
Is this where twrp comes in? Or will I still have to flash a stock image regardless, like I would if I go twrpless?
Is it true that I can make, and restore from a backup I make with twrp in case something goes wrong?
Isn't that something I can also do with Titanium Backup?
Twrpless root seems like it's a lot more easy to maintain with OTA's (download from the settings, reinstall magisk on second partition) than a twrp install would (having to connect my device to my pc and going through the steps again every time an OTA gets pushed).
The main reason I'm asking all these questions is because I still find it hard to pinpoint exactly why more experienced people in these forums favor one way or the other, and what exactly the added benefit would be of twrp in my situation. Personally, I want my phone to be more customizable (black theme, adaway, yt vanced and so on) but keep all the functionality. Banking apps, wifi, cellular and everything.
I'm not going to install custom roms. And a little bit of added ease of use with OTA sounds really good to me.
I have read that the systemless magisk twrpless might be the best fit for my needs, but after hearing your advice from my previous questionthread I decided to wait for twrp. Now twrp official is released and I dove into reading just about everything I could find I have doubts if it is something I actually need. In short I just keep swaying without being able to make a decision.
Sorry for the long post, I hope my questions are clear enough, since it's pretty late when I'm typing this. I just want to be thoroughly informed about all of this, I rather post too many questions and root correctly without concerns instead of having to make an SOS post later when my phone has exploded, lol.
And maybe there will be other newlings who can benefit from this information.
Thanks for reading!
Ok lets first address the types of backups.
Type one is system apps and data. This backup saves all apps (apk) and all data that is stored within the app folders. This is a Titanium backup.
Type two is a Nandroid backup. This backup saves your entire phones data including the internal storage, data, apps, pictures, music, cache, settings, passwords, EFS (encrypted file system) and even the Titanium backups backup itself.
Now let me explain what each of these backups are capable of. First we will start with Titanium Backup. If for some reason you brick your phone and lose all of your data. In order to use Titanium Backup you will have to install your operating system, unlock your bootloader, root your phone, install Titanium Backup and merge your data from wherever you have it to your device and install your apps + data one at a time.
Nandroid backup. Same scenario bricking or losing your data. You can simply fastboot the twrp.img once your phone boots into recovery you can merge nandroid backup point TWRP to the restore location and you have your operating system and all of your data back in place as if nothing happened. You will then flash Magisk back to your device then you would install TWRP clear your cache and once you reboot everything is just the way it was when you created the nandroid backup.
Installing an update with TWRP is as simple as downloading the update and flashing both the update and Magisk, clearing cache and rebooting.
Having TWRP would allow you to wipe and reinstall fresh like factory settings or you can restore everything you backed up.
Make Nandroid backups bi-weekly or monthly so you can always have an updated copy of your data.
Titanium backups I have scheduled once a week with 2 max backups. Why 2? If I update an app and my backup runs tomorrow I would be stuck with an app update that may be broken. This way I have the previous weeks backup to reinstall the app and data with.
Whichever you choose always always always keep redundant backups. One on the phone, one on your computer, one on a thumb drive ect ect.

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