Best multiple ROM practice when using TWRP - ONE Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello forums,
I have a rooted One running the latest official update version 44S with TWRP recovery. I am interested in flashing an Android Lollipop port (the one made from CM12 dailies). If I don't want to lose all my app data permanently (I know several resets and erases are necessary to swap ROMs), how can I back it up and then restore it once I've upgraded? Can I keep a backup of my current ROM/apps through the various resets necessary (just in case of big issues or bootloops)? FYI all my backups include system and data, but not cache.
Thanks to any help in advance!

If you're only backing up system and data, your phone will never boot when you restore the backup, you need to backup boot as well. You should always keep at least one backup on your phone at all times, just in case things go wrong. Unless you wipe your internal storage (which you don't need to do) you won't lose your backup. In regards to your user apps, just use Titanium Backup to back them up and then you can restore them after flashing a ROM.
Transmitted via Bacon

Related

[Q] Need reassurance about backup process

Hi. I've been using a ROM for the last little while (SlimICS), and I like it, more or less. There's a feature in another ROM (ParanoidAndroid, per-app density), that I'd really like to try out, but this ROM also has a lot of features I don't want (tablet mode) and doubt I would like. I use TWRP as my recovery...if I use TWRP to make a backup of System, Data, Boot, Recovery, .android_secure, and EFS, will I be able to flash this other ROM, then restore the backup to go back to my old ROM after I play with the new one a bit? Will the backup of these items bring me back to exactly how it was before, if I do a Wipe Cache/Dalvik Cache/Factory Reset?
Sorry if these questions are answered elsewhere, I'm just trying to make sure that my limited understanding of all this isn't incorrect, in my specific situation.
If you make a backup through recovery, when you restore, it'll be exactly where you left off, settings and all, when you shut the phone down.
When backing up in Recovery, you are backing up the OS and apps. This is called a nandroid. This does not backup anything on the sdcard.
Yesterday, I flashed a different kernel version on my NS. Before flashing, I did a nandroid backup using Reovery. Unfortunately, the kernel failed to load properly and I was stuck in a boot loop. I restored my backup I have done previously, and my phone was back where it was, few minutes before. It is very easy to do and backups/restores and verified using MD5 checksum.
Keep in mind that some apps put stuff on the sdcard. So if you flash your phone to a new ROM, upgrade apps and then go back to another ROM, it is possible that some apps won't work anymore. I've never seen this happen but this is a possibility.

[Q] General Nandroid question about restoring a backup and custom kernels

Hi
I have a couple of questions, been digging around xda and the web and found some conflicting answers...
1) Does a Nandroid backup also back up the kernel? I'm thinking about dabbling with some custom kernels, but don't want to potentially mess things up as well as have an easy way back to the stock kernel if I don't like the custom one for one reason or another.
2) What would happen if I made a Nandroid backup from recovery, did a full wipe (/data, /system, /sdcard, caches), rebooted then restored from the Nandroid backup?
I'm still pretty new to all this but I've done some reading and a wee bit of flashing & rooting on Nexus devices and the HP Touchpad. I also have an old TF101 that I'd really like to tinker with as well.
Thanks!
cardula said:
Hi
I have a couple of questions, been digging around xda and the web and found some conflicting answers...
1) Does a Nandroid backup also back up the kernel? I'm thinking about dabbling with some custom kernels, but don't want to potentially mess things up as well as have an easy way back to the stock kernel if I don't like the custom one for one reason or another.
2) What would happen if I made a Nandroid backup from recovery, did a full wipe (/data, /system, /sdcard, caches), rebooted then restored from the Nandroid backup?
I'm still pretty new to all this but I've done some reading and a wee bit of flashing & rooting on Nexus devices and the HP Touchpad. I also have an old TF101 that I'd really like to tinker with as well.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know much about kernel but I do know that Nandroid backup backups everything exactly where the phone is.
That means if you do factory reset and restore Nandroid backup it will restore everything from the day you made the Nandroid backup.
I hope it clarifies everything.
Let me answer your questions.
1. When you do a nandroid backup, it backs up everything. Including the kernel.
2. If you nandroid backup, factory reset your device then restore your nandroid backup. Your device will return to the same state you had it previously. You will have all your content, files and settings. However if you do a backup, then factory reset and reboot, your device will be wiped of everything but it will boot up. As if the device was just turned in upon purchase. Also note, if you do a backup, then wipe your device (factory reset) you will not lose your backup.
Just note, if you ever flash a ROM, even if the developer states there is no issues. MAKE A BACKUP, sometimes things go wrong.
Happy flashing
If I helped, don't hesitate to hit that Thanks button
Thanks for the quick replies!
I was a bit confused about 2) because I read somewhere that if you make a nandroid backup of a stock ROM, then install a custom ROM (non-Stock based ie CM, PA or OmniROM) you must flash the stock ROM again before you can restore the nandroid backup, or else restoring the nandroid backup will not work. Is this true?
Consider the following example, say I:
-flash TWRP on my device and root
-make nandroid of stock, rooted ROM
-wipe /data, /system, /sdcard and caches and reboot back into recovery
-ADB push a non-stock custom ROM .zip file and flash the custom ROM
-decide I want to return to stock, rooted ROM after a while
-Boot into TWRP, then wipe /data, /system, /sdcard and caches and reboot back into recovery
-ADB push my original stock, rooted nandroid backup to /sdcard while in reocvery
-restore nandroid backup
What would be the outcome of the above example? I'm very curious...but I'd like some advice before attempting something like this myself as I'm still kinda new to all this
BTW I'm now comfortable flashing back to stock using fastboot and the google facotry image to restore a Nexus device so I now know how to do this in case things go south. I'm just curious if this would work on a device where returning to a full stock state isn't so easy.
No you don't need to install anything to get back to the previous state. So if you had a stock rooted ROM, then backed it up. But you decided to flash, let's say. Cyanogenmod but you wished to return back to stock, you don't need to flash stock ROM, all you have to do is just wipe data and restore your backup.
And for the example.
The outcome would be, you would be resulted with a stock, rooted rom.
If I helped, don't hesitate to hit that Thanks button
Thanks again, krishneelg3 for the quick reply. Been wondering about this for a while.
Cheers
No worries, if you have any other questions to ask, just ask. xda is a giving community !
If I helped, don't hesitate to hit that Thanks button

BT problem with 05Q. Help me downgrade

I was on stock 44S, except TWRP and root (and unlocked bootloader).
A couple of days ago, I gave the go ahead for OTA to 05Q and I lost the ability to connect to my BT car kit.
I see other people having the same issue over at op+1 forums but no solution.
I tested with different kernels and with full wipe but the problem is there.
The car kit will not recognize the phone at all. It just does not find it during scan. If I do it the other way round, and put the phone to scan for the carkit, it will find it and request the pin, but it will not pair.
I had no problem with 44S and I wonder what is the quickest way to downgrade without loosing data.
From the FAQ its not clear if flashing only system.img from 44S will work.
Another idea is to try a different ROM but the selection is vast and I'm confused over which one to use.
You can't really downgrade without losing some data, but if you just use Titanium Backup to backup your user apps first you can restore them after downgrading. So backup your user apps, perform a full wipe (system, data, cache, dalvik cache), flash the unofficial 44S stock rooted flashable zip from this thread, restore user apps, done.
If you want to try a custom ROM it really isn't all that hard, just read the features and try one (make a TWRP backup first), if you don't like it you can always restore the backup you made.
Transmitted via Bacon
Just to conclude this.
I took a titanium (and TWRP) backup.
Full wipe (except internal storage) and downgraded to stock-rooted-4-4-4-xnph44s from the above link (from TWRP).
After the lengthy restore process using titanium, BT is again operational as it should.
Some notes:
Mobile data is by default on - so if needed remove the SIM before the upgrade to avoid charges.
Don't forget to turn off the "Update CM recovery" to avoid overwriting of TWRP.

[Q] Upgrading While Rooted

So, I know that OTA will fail since I am rooted. I am on a Sprint S6 with OC9. I rooted using the T-Mobile Auto-Root.
I see that OCF was published for Odin to flash back to stock. My question revolves around the recommended procedure for flashing with stock. I use Titanium Backup. If I backup, then flash OCF, will this also erase all data on the phone to the point where I have to restore all backups and customize the phone all over again? There's just some things Titanium can't restore well. Or is there a way to update the ROM without wiping everything (dirty flash)?
Given the phone has built-in storage and no microSD, does the storage partition ever get wiped unless I do it manually?
Also, is there any sort of change log for the stock ROM versions? Or do they seem to be just modem updates at this point?
I don't know much about this phone yet since I just got it but coming from a nexus 5 flashing a ROM would keep your data but in this case since it is a system image you will probably lose everything in your storage

[Completed] Restore OS After Wiping System Partition - Galaxy S5

Due to problems with Google Services on my rooted Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F) I opted for a reset from TWRP and it returned to a condition where after some initial screens it was just stuck at "Checking for Updates" so I went back into TWRP and told it to wipe the other partitions. Whoops - now I have no OS (I was sort of assuming that the factory reset OS was somewhere else)
Which is the stock ROM for my Region - UK, unbranded - where do I get it from and how do I load it using Odin and/or TWRP?
TIA
Hello,
Did you make a nandroid backup of your stock ROM or a nandroid backup of a custom ROM if you installed one? If you have a nandroid backup of either of those then you can restore them in TWRP by choosing the restore option and then your nandroid then swipe the slider at the bottom of the screen. If you installed a custom ROM at any time before this and you still have the ROM file then you can reflash the ROM and Gapps.
If you don't have a custom ROM stored anywhere but can still get to recovery, then you can download any of the custom ROMs compatible with your device and a Gapps package that matches it and put them on your extsdcard then boot to recovery and flash the ROM and gapps, do the normal wipes in recovery after flashing, the normal wipes(wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache and wipe dalvik cache), DO NOT CHOOSE THE ADVANCED OPTIONS THAT LET YOU WIPE PARTITIONS.
Check this thread to see if it is your stock firmware, it SHOULD be but double check first, it also has instructions for rooting again and installing recovery.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/development/stock-rom-root-recovery-sm-g900f-t2967725
If that doesn't work then go to Sammobile.com and search for your stock firmware by using your device model number.
The firmwares can sometimes be found at samsung-updates.com also.
Find the right firmware for your exact model number and flash through Odin.
For further assistance, post your question in the forum linked below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/help
Good luck.
Droidriven said:
Did you make a nandroid backup of your stock ROM or a nandroid backup of a custom ROM if you installed one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly not - wasn't expecting to need it, thought it would revert to factory default - I have Titanium backup of apps and data.
I am hopefully a few minutes away from downloading the stock ROM and hopefully can reflash that using ODIN.
KD
colehill said:
Sadly not - wasn't expecting to need it, thought it would revert to factory default - I have Titanium backup of apps and data.
I am hopefully a few minutes away from downloading the stock ROM and hopefully can reflash that using ODIN.
KD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Making nandroid backups in recovery is the most important and valuable function of custom recovery, flashing ROMs is its' secondary purpose Android is not like PC with a recovery partition that restores a factory IMG, on PC that factory IMG is stored in a recovery partition. The factory reset feature in stock android does not restore an IMG, it deletes all data from the user partition and leaves everything in system partition the way it is, if you delete a system app and then do a factory reset then you will still not have the system app that you deleted. Anything you modify in system remains the way you modified it if you use the factory reset option. You should only use the factory reset in recovery, not the factory reset in system settings when you have a rooted device with custom recovery.
I'm sure that when you found the recovery, the directions had to have mentioned making a nandroid backup of your stock ROM before flashing anything, your present situation is why you do that, so that if anything goes wrong then you can easily restore to the one ROM that you know for sure works with no issues.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
Droidriven said:
I'm sure that when you found the recovery, the directions had to have mentioned making a nandroid backup of your stock ROM before flashing anything, your present situation is why you do that, so that if anything goes wrong then you can easily restore to the one ROM that you know for sure works with no issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed the TWERP recovery as part of the rooting operation and I didn't pay any attention to the backup option - I thought that's what Titanium did.
I am learning and will make sure that I take a Nandroid backup once I have it back up and running. Life would be so much simpler if only Samsunng didn't stuff their 'phones with bloatware that can't be deleted in stock mode.
KD
colehill said:
I installed the TWERP recovery as part of the rooting operation and I didn't pay any attention to the backup option - I thought that's what Titanium did.
I am learning and will make sure that I take a Nandroid backup once I have it back up and running. Life would be so much simpler if only Samsunng didn't stuff their 'phones with bloatware that can't be deleted in stock mode.
KD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium backup can only backup data that you installed or downloaded, it does not backup anything that comes on the phone itself, that is what custom recovery is for.
When following guides to mod your device, read and understand ALL instructions before you even make the first move to touch your device. Get used to being thorough about reading and understanding first or you'll end up in a mess, possibly even hard brick your device, all it takes is one wrong move. Not all mistakes are fixable with android devices.
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