Hi, I'm a bit confused about the various backup tools in Android. (I've got a rooted Galaxy S3 with a old custom rom, which I'm planning to wipe everything and switch to CyanogenMod.)
Is there a way to take an complete "image" (like Clonezilla, etc) of my phone, so that if I mess things up, I can restore my phone to the exact state of the backup?
Here is what I've researched on the net, which I'm confused about:
- If I go to CWM recovery and do a backup there (is it a "nandroid" backup?) then I think it gets the "Operating System" part of the phone, but doesnt include the internal SD Card storage? (which is a problem because most apps store their data there, and won't recover properly if it's been wiped?)
- Titanium backup can backup my apps, SMS, contacts etc, but it won't do the "Operating System", so it won't backup my ROM?
- There's also the ADB backup command, is it more complete that the other two methods? I tried it on my Ubuntu 14 machine and I'm not sure it's working properly, though. It ran for a while and just stopped with no progress indicators or any other feedback on its success. Do I need to be in "Fastboot mode" or "recovery mode" to do it? Or just the regular phone mode?
So anyway, is there any sort of all-in-one backup I can do, so that if I mess up my factory reset + upgrade to CyanogenMod, I can restore my phone perfectly to its original condition?
Unlike a PC, where I can test restore to a Virtual Machine or spare computer, I don't have any spare phones to experiment with, so I'm a bit afraid of messing up. Is there any way of verifying that my backup is valid?
Thanks!
Any program that does partition/disk loning can do that, provided the phone/device can be put into appropriate mode and has device drivers installed on connected computer. I, actually, just put a prerooted firmware on my second phone, because nothing else works.
To answer your question, before I put new firmware on, I backed up total original state of the phone using a program called HDD Raw Copy Tool. See it here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=59608776&postcount=3
Thanks, that's very interesting.
I'm not sure about the "drivers" for my Galaxy S3 that would enable me to see it's storage like a harddrive, though. Is it just the regular MTP / Mass Storage Device drivers? Or something special?
Is there a linux solution? I guess I would use DD, but not sure how to access the phone's complete storage...
Windows 7 installed (rather swiftly) drivers upon first connecting. My guesses are either those were generic USB drivers or the previously installed phone drivers were utilized. I simply mention drivers in advance, in case they become an issue. Either way, the phone shows as a standard USB storage drive in Windows, albeit unreadable by the system (because of EXT filesystem).
DD will probably work, as the phone would simply be a hard/flash drive at that point.
Related
So my screen broke (the digitizer only) so im able to see the screen, and the phone boots perfectly, I want to know if anyone knows a way i can Backup the whole system or program data at least? I cant access Titanium, cant access ROM Manager, and well since there is no Clockwork Flash or whatnot, i cant do a backup to SD =/
EDIT: Ok. im brainstorming, I just flashed NVFlash, I used external, so ill back up from there, and try to restore on the other phone. ADB is enabled now, so if anyone knows their way around ADB, maybe pull all the files and push into the new phone? Any ideas? Thanks Guys.
Sadly, from playing around, I Reset my phone and could not back up the data, just files. oh well. =/
SOLVED MYSELF. LOL
So in case anyone runs through this problem, this i what i did to recover the files/and backup!
Recover Files:
1. Install NVFlash internal
2. Open Clockwork and MOUNT, and you should be able to recover photos/music, etc.
Recover Everything else:
1. Re-do NVFlash external
2. Open Clockwork and BACKUP (it backs up to SD CARD), and then just RESTORE from the new phone.
Nevermind..
Hey so not sure if this is sense thing or Android OS thing, but basically when plugging in my phone to the PC, Mount SD card is not an option.
I know this isn't the card, phone hardware, pc, or cable. Has to be something in the OS. I've searched all over and I can't find a option in the UI to enable / disable this....
Troubleshooting steps:
1. Tried Different Cable.
2. Tried different PC.
3. Formatted SD card and re-enabled.
4. Tried Differnt SD card (at this point I thought it was phone hardware)
5. I loaded ICS and noticed mass storage was there and working fine.
6. Loaded CoreDroid (was using RCMix3D). Option was there.
7. Did a Titanium Restore and tada option gone again.
8. Loaded RCMix3D again, option there again, until I did a titanium restore.
9. Tried with and without USB Debugging.
So this tells me something I changed somewhere disabled this (no idea how I did it because I wouldn't intentionally do that). Any help would be appricated such a weird thing... and I've seen a couple threads where this was a problem, but never saw a solution posted ... and I think this is not Sense but Android as it seems to be an issue on different models other than HTC as well.
Thanks for any help in advance!
What are you restoring with Titanium? Titanium should be used to backup user data and user apps ONLY. That is it. Sounds like you are restoring system files/apps too which is a big no no and is possibly causing your problem.
I have been doing system files too ... probably a good call on that one!! I'll reflash my rom now and let ya know, I've always done system files, but it makes sense why that is the issue.... still don't know how it's happening..
Corruption maybe?
xtremedelta said:
I have been doing system files too ... probably a good call on that one!! I'll reflash my rom now and let ya know, I've always done system files, but it makes sense why that is the issue.... still don't know how it's happening..
Corruption maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, to be plain and simple about it, restoring SYSTEM data from TiBu has ALWAYS been a no-no going from ROM to ROM.
restore MISSING apps and data only....never system stuff.
So that didn't work. Did an App Data only restore, not even an app restore, but that didn't fix it. I did check and USB Mass storage was working before the restore right after I flashed the new rom...
So maybe an app breaking it? Weird scenario for sure. I mean worst case scenario is I only do a restore on apps I know I need data from. Other than I dunno.
xtremedelta said:
So that didn't work. Did an App Data only restore, not even an app restore, but that didn't fix it. I did check and USB Mass storage was working before the restore right after I flashed the new rom...
So maybe an app breaking it? Weird scenario for sure. I mean worst case scenario is I only do a restore on apps I know I need data from. Other than I dunno.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*/MISSING APPS AND DATA/*
thats the key....dont just 'restore apps and data'
xtremedelta said:
So that didn't work. Did an App Data only restore, not even an app restore, but that didn't fix it. I did check and USB Mass storage was working before the restore right after I flashed the new rom...
So maybe an app breaking it? Weird scenario for sure. I mean worst case scenario is I only do a restore on apps I know I need data from. Other than I dunno.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What didn't fix it? Your ROM is screwed up and you have to start fresh and quit making the mistakes you are making. Did you wipe and reflash your ROM? And it worked, you can connect to mass storage? Then it is fixed. Then when you go to use Titanium backup to restore your apps choose "Restore all apps with data". Then on the next screen you have to uncheck everything that is NOT in white text. Red is system apps and Green is your accounts and settings. While restoring the green items in most cases is safe, it can still cause many conflicts. So lets not do the green restore yet. We can go back and pick through the green items later.
After you restore the white items only report back if mass storage is working correctly.
Agoattamer said:
What didn't fix it? Your ROM is screwed up and you have to start fresh and quit making the mistakes you are making. Did you wipe and reflash your ROM? And it worked, you can connect to mass storage? Then it is fixed. Then when you go to use Titanium backup to restore your apps choose "Restore all apps with data". Then on the next screen you have to uncheck everything that is NOT in white text. Red is system apps and Green is your accounts and settings. While restoring the green items in most cases is safe, it can still cause many conflicts. So lets not do the green restore yet. We can go back and pick through the green items later.
After you restore the white items only report back if mass storage is working correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks... thats pretty much what I've been doing. When I saw the Rom was working pre-restore I knew what was breaking it (especially when only restoring app data. I just didn't know what EXACTLY was breaking it, and wanted to see if anyone else heard of this. I've been starting fresh and I'll admit to the system data restore (didn't know that was a "no no") but other than that ,, yea I'm trying to quit making the mistakes I'm making.... Thanks for the advise tho.
Similar issue.
i dont wana be a F****** noob and post everywhere. so this is the closest i could find. anyway, htc inspire, at&t, no option to mount as usb drive. i have had my phone rooted running rcmix3D. changed the boot logo option and it got stuck at the boot screen. eventually restored to a previous save (still rooted). i have to sd cards. 32G and 8G. i have booth backed up to my computer from a previous version as well. my 32 will not read on my phone after the fix. i tried reformatting it on my phone through the hboot and it will not mount. so i pluged it into my computer and it freezes "my computer" whether i double click it or right click it it does the same. so i am trying to mount my phone as a usb drive to get my computer to read the sd card to whip it. i have been trying via hboot but i get the error "E:unable to write to ums lunfile (no such file or directory)" excuse the long reply
If I gather what you are saying, your sd card is corrupted or damaged? Your phone and your computer won't read it? But you want to put it in your phone and have your computer read it in mass storage mode? Sounds like to me the card is fried no matter how you look at it. If it is under warranty, contact the manufaturer. If not, then toss it and get a new one.
you go it. i did call the manufacturer and they said it was a hardware issue. did not specify what kind. but they suggested to to return it. if the store wouldn't take it to just call them back and they would exchange it. pretty much the only solution to the "I/O device error" thank you for the responce though
I'm trying to clear up a confusion in my mind about how to really backup a rooted Nexus 5.
(For privacy reasons I use a firewall, etc. and do not sync with Google or the cloud).
- I know that Titanium Backup will backup all the installed apps and their data.
- I know that a nandroid backup (I use twrp) will backup the android system and apps.
But there seems to be gap here - unless I am mistaken. Over time, most users add new folders in the sdcard for downloads, documents, genealogy, and the like. I tend to think of a nandroid backup as similar to an "image backup" in windows, but I suspect it might not be because the nandroid backup does not backup these newly created folders. Am I correct? Does a nandroid backup these additional sdcard folders? I think most people assume they do, but a friend just told me they do not and he lost a lot of data because of that erroneous assumption. I hope he is wrong!
Does a nandroid backup the system and the entire sdcard - or not? If not, why not? I'm not a programmer but it would seem to be a simple thing to include any additional sdcard folders? What am I missing? Is there a technical reason why a complete backup is not possible in android?
A nandroid doesn't backup 100% of the device.. I'm not sure why, but I know it doesn't. /sdcard (or whatever its called lol) is not backed up.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
You're correct that there is no simple way to back up your entire device. Even using Google will not back it up.
A nandroid will back up your system, apps and app data. It will not backup your /sdcard. That means any photos, music, downloaded files, etc.
Unfortunately, to backup your device you really need to use a nandroid, the cloud and your pc.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
That's a shame. I was hoping I was wrong! I bet a lot of users have been burned by that! :crying:
Seems to be a glaring opening for a "killer app" that would
a) reboot the phone into recovery
b) do a nandroid backup
c) append a backup of remaining folders
Then the whole could be copied to a pc or flashdrive. Maybe even done in one swoop while attached by usb to a pc. Like a pc backing up an image to an external hd - which I do all the time.
It's so obvious that I wonder what is making this unachievable in android.
Is there such an app? Looks like I have been living dangerously.......
If you could do that you'd run out of storage space before it completed
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
I just create a folder called backup on my comp. Then do a:
Code:
adb pull /. backup
It takes two hours but pulls the entire phone to my comp. Or at least as close as you'll ever get with android.
Ben36 said:
If you could do that you'd run out of storage space before it completed
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought of that. That is why it would be an app to run while your device was connected to the pc. Just like when I do an image backup of my windows laptop to an external HD.
You need to connect to a PC or other drive to transfer the nandroid anyway.
theesotericone said:
I just create a folder called backup on my comp. Then do a:
Code:
adb pull /. backup
It takes two hours but pulls the entire phone to my comp. Or at least as close as you'll ever get with android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is what I will have to do. Thanks for the adb command to use.
But, it is a two step procedure: first create a nandroid, then connect to PC to move everything there. Unless I am wrong, without a nandroid, just copying everything on the phone will not let me restore the system. (Maybe I am wrong).
I am not knowledgeable enough, but, if not an app, maybe a script that you run - while connected to the PC (or external HD? with stickmount?) - would either boot the phone into recovery, do the nandroid, and copy everything (including the nandroid) to the pc. Unless one can skip a step by creating the nandroid directly on the PC instead of on the phone.
I'm a relative newbie and could be talking nonsense - sorry if I am - but if it can be done in Windows, it should be abe to be done in android/linux.
maybeme2 said:
That is what I will have to do. Thanks for the adb command to use.
But, it is a two step procedure: first create a nandroid, then connect to PC to move everything there. Unless I am wrong, without a nandroid, just copying everything on the phone will not let me restore the system. (Maybe I am wrong).
I am not knowledgeable enough, but, if not an app, maybe a script that you run - while connected to the PC (or external HD? with stickmount?) - would either boot the phone into recovery, do the nandroid, and copy everything (including the nandroid) to the pc. Unless one can skip a step by creating the nandroid directly on the PC instead of on the phone.
I'm a relative newbie and could be talking nonsense - sorry if I am - but if it can be done in Windows, it should be abe to be done in android/linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly the only time I've used that command was a few years ago when I was looking into what your asking about. Long
story short, it was a complete failure. lol The best bet is just using a nand and copying your sdcard over to the comp whenever you feel the need. It's really easy to restore the sdcard. It's really hard to use ADB to restore anything else. It's possible but takes way more time than just restoring a nand.
I'm trying to transfer app data from my rooted Nexus 6 to my stock Galaxy S8+. The Nexus 6 is on Oreo, and the Galaxy is on Nougat. As far as I know, Helium is the only method for backing up application data without root access.
Unfortunately, out of the 24 apps that I'm trying to back up, only 11 apparently worked. And yet they would ONLY backup to internal storage. I repeatedly get an unspecified, generic error when trying to back them up to the cloud. So I was forced to use internal storage. I then transferred the carbon folder to my PC, and then copied it to my new phone, but the backups aren't recognized.
I tried rooting the Galaxy, which worked fine, but after a few hours, somehow it randomly rebooted and got stuck booting to upload mode every time no matter what I did. So I had to load download mode and restore it to stock. I was pissed, to say the least, as I had spent well over an hour restoring and setting it up. If I could, I'd just copy over my TB folder from the Nexus again, and go from there, but that's not a viable option. I'm leery of rooting it again.
And before anyone asks, yes, I checked the permissions, and they were already all enabled, storage access included. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the fact that the app hasn't been updated since October 2016. Though one reviewer mentions that it works on Oreo just fine. Any suggestions?
Anyone?
I have tried to transfer apps and data just like what you did with Helium. I found some phone changed backup files when they were been copied from internal storage to PC. The solution was to compress them to a RAR file, then extracted it after copying to PC or new phone, so it could be recognized and restored.
The problem is some apps are "disallowed" to be backup, only part of them can be.
ypsilonn said:
I have tried to transfer apps and data just like what you did with Helium. I found some phone changed backup files when they were been copied from internal storage to PC. The solution was to compress them to a RAR file, then extracted it after copying to PC or new phone, so it could be recognized and restored.
The problem is some apps are "disallowed" to be backup, only part of them can be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you compressed them on the phone, copied them to the new one, and extracted them again? Then ran Helium?
Yes. Of course you can extract it on PC and then copy to the new phone, too.
And here are other key points:
1.The USB mode must be PTP, not MTP.
2.Helium can only restore data of apps, not including apps themselves, even though it says it can. To solve this problem, you can use another backup app to restore the apps to the new phone, then restore the backup files made by Helium.
ypsilonn said:
Yes. Of course you can extract it on PC and then copy to the new phone, too.
And here are other key points:
1.The USB mode must be PTP, not MTP.
2.Helium can only restore data of apps, not including apps themselves, even though it says it can. To solve this problem, you can use another backup app to restore the apps to the new phone, then restore the backup files made by Helium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, cool. I will try that out next time I have to wipe/restore my phone.
Hi everyone. I guess this question, may be can be easy for many of you, or I don't know if is already posted , but please guide me.
I want to perform on android something like to a restore point on windows; I mean, that if I corrupt system or perform a hard reset after that restore point (or backup), I can restore everything (apps and customizations, and i hope, existing root access) exactly to when I did restore point.
I ask you this, because I think my device needs a factory reset to test something, but no matter the result of the test, I would need to waste hours and hours, by restoring everything to how it was before hard reset; so, if there's a tool that could save me those hours, wil be excellent.
So, thanks in advance, and please guide me.
for this you would need root. by stock, android cannot make a backup of your apps and settings. more exactly a twrp backup
Fytdyh said:
for this you would need root. by stock, android cannot make a backup of your apps and settings. more exactly a twrp backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I have twrp installed. ¿How I perform and then restore that "restore point"? ¿Is the backup made by twrp very big? I mean, ¿Do I need how much sd card free space to perform a successfully backup?
Only to have mentioned it:
If phone's Android is rooted and USB-Debugging is successfully enabled on it then you can perform a NANDROID backup ( a really full backup ) by means of ADB using Android's dd system command what allows you to store the backup on desktop computer.
xXx yYy said:
Only to have mentioned it:
If phone's Android is rooted and USB-Debugging is successfully enabled on it then you can perform a NANDROID backup ( a really full backup ) by means of ADB using Android's dd system command what allows you to store the backup on desktop computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But there is a little problem: My usb support (mtp, adb and otg) is not working at all, so i guess my only possible option, is dump the restore point to the sdcard ¿or is there any other option?
Using TWRP to NANDROID backup the phone you can define the storage space where the backup sholuld go to: Internal Storage ( AKA /sdcard) , external Storage ( Memory Card ) or a Pen Drive via OTG cable. If you proceed with the latter 2, make sure to first mount it onto your device via the TWRP Mount option.
In your case backing up to Internal Storage doesn't make sense at all because you can't additionally save it to PC, too, due to lacking ADB support, IMO.
See also here: https://twrp.me/faq/backupexclusions.html