Database Info

How to restore certain apps?

OK, here's what happened.
1. I installed Infinity yesterday and right after reboot, after I signed in with my gmail account and went to market to download an app I normally use, phone automagically downloaded all apps I had previously installed and used all the time. All by itself, which was a pleasant surprise. There is one app that I seriously need as is, which is old Tunewiki, as it still has my free lastfm account on it. Took me years to build my station.
2. I had Humble on the phone before. It's OK, but kinda sluggish. Infinity was apparently faster. So, in my wisdom, I played with phone and found that power button also has CWM recovery feature on it.
3. Considering all the prestidigitation one needs to do to put phone into CWM mode with fingers, I "tried out" how it works - and it worked fine, got me into CWM mode in about a minute
4. Cool, so even in more wisdom, I re-booted phone from CWM mode.
5. After reboot, all my favorite apps and all new settings I did in Infinity were gone. It, basically, rebooted to stock Infinity settings.
6. Now, here's interesting thing. Those apps I was missing, showed in apps list, but not highlighted and with little SD card logo next to them. Basically, they showed as "we are on SD card, not installed". Yes, including my old working Tunewiki.
7. I reverted back to Humble from CWM back up. Everything went back to normal, just like it's supposed to.
8. Re-installed Infinity. This time, apps that downloaded themselves and installed themselves did not do it. I lost my old Tunewiki, lastfm free account, and Voodoo Control now says that phone needs to be rooted in order for it to work.
9. I am back to Humble. Everything works fine. Well, except that with Infinity, streaming was much faster and reliable.
10. I want to go back to Infinity, but I want my apps back the way they did it in step 1. Or, have them somehow re-installed from where they are now, which I assume is SD card, based on that logo next to inactive app. I must have old Tunewiki and Voodoo control working, the rest I can download and re-install.
Suggestions, in simple English, please, are appreciated. I am not a developer, please, do not toss "go to TWI, freeze JLK, twick GHV" at me. I am a simple vanilla phone user that was not born with all that wisdom.
Many thanks.

If you read the op of infinity you would see it is a know issue with the old version of cwm download the new cwm and entering wont cause a data wipe. No being rude but this is clearly stated in the infinity rom thread. To save yourself from a headache in the future dont install anything on your phone without atleast reading the opening posts of the dev.
Sent from my Gummy Charged GBE 2.1 using xda premium

Go to TWI, freeze JLK, and tweak GHV.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium

coreysr said:
If you read the op of infinity you would see it is a know issue with the old version of cwm download the new cwm and entering wont cause a data wipe. No being rude but this is clearly stated in the infinity rom thread. To save yourself from a headache in the future dont install anything on your phone without atleast reading the opening posts of the dev.
Sent from my Gummy Charged GBE 2.1 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I go from XXX to this ROM?
The fastest way to go to this ROM from anything is by downloading and flashing the ROM+Kernel on EXT4 package. That will format your partitions to EXT4 and then install the kernel and ROM. Note that this will wipe all of your user data in the process, so be sure to backup anything you may want prior to flashing.
Help, I restarted into recovery and lost all of my data!
This is an issue that affects people randomly. My opinion is that you can deal with it for the time being. I recommend using a good backup solution that doesn't involve recovery. I say this because I test ROMs and have had my data wiped hundreds of times due to testing over the past several weeks. If I can deal with resetting everything all the time as the developer, you, as the user, should also be able to make due until a permanent solution can be found.
So I do have a back up, except that it's Humble b/up and I don't know how to restore specific apps from it. CONSTRUCTIVE suggestions?

there was a saying back in my 'ol country: saving of a drowning one is the best business of the drowning one himself.
I have just updated to Infinity again, without any problems. But, this time, I updated with short ROM version, one that does not wipe all data and repartition everything.
Basically, all my programs and settings stayed preserved from Humble. All programs I was concerned about stayed untouched, but the rest of the junk is gone, just like I wanted it.
I guess, I can thank to myself for some creative thinking.

[Q] help with clockworkmod recovery

I Have rooted my phone, and have the clockworkmod. I havent paid for the full version, but have verified that my binaries are up to date.
I am trying to create a nandroid backup, but when I go to the clockworkmod, then backups, then create backup, my phone reboots, then I get a triangle with an exclamation point that is rotated slightly counter clockwise, and a green android man standing to the right of it. at that point, nothing happens.
There are no menus, no options, nothing. I then have to restart my phone as usual.
I have scoured to internet and the forums but have not seen this issue or any related problem. How can I create a useful backup that I can restore from.?
I have mybackup Pro, and have created data backups, but when it comes to backing up my apps including APKs, the backup begins, then all the sudden my phone restarts and when I check the manage and restore areas, there are no backups for my apps.
Before I rooted my phone this program worked fine. Now all the sudden I cannot backup my apps.
I have also restored quite a bit from my previous backups, but the personalized settings for each app were not saved nor recovered.
At this point I have been unable to create any sort of useful backup, which means I do not want to risk downloading a new ROM such as ICS.
Im not sure how to procede, but my main question is why wont clockworkmod work to create a backup? it seems to easy to create a nandroid backup when browsing the forums, but for whatever reason my phone either freezes or reboots on its own when attempting to do so.
All other functions on my phone work correctly.
By the way, I have a samsung galaxy s2 epic 4g touch if that helps at all.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I really want to try some other ROMs, especially the newer versions of ICS since I am doubtful that anytime in the near future I will get an upgrade for it. especially with the s3 coming out with ICS already on it, I suspect it will be months before ICS becomes available for the S2, if it ever becomes available at all. I think manufacturuers and Sprint, Verizon and the like just want people to spend the extra money upgrading to the S3 and they will forget about the S2 alltogether.
Please advise how I can create a nandroid backup.
I have also downloaded titanium backup, but dont have the funds for the pro version, and on top of that, I have read that its a lot easier to brick your phone using that program since it is so much more powerful. Id rather stick to clockworkmod, but cannot create any sort of backup using it.
Any ideas? any suggestions? you guys seem very useful and intelligent when it comes to this stuff, and I literally just rooted my phone last weekend not more than 3 days ago and have had nothing but problems since. The root worked fine, my phone works fine including all functions, but I cant create a backup for the life of me.
Thanks in advance for any help.

colin1182 said:
I Have rooted my phone, and have the clockworkmod. I havent paid for the full version, but have verified that my binaries are up to date.
I am trying to create a nandroid backup, but when I go to the clockworkmod, then backups, then create backup, my phone reboots, then I get a triangle with an exclamation point that is rotated slightly counter clockwise, and a green android man standing to the right of it. at that point, nothing happens.
There are no menus, no options, nothing. I then have to restart my phone as usual.
I have scoured to internet and the forums but have not seen this issue or any related problem. How can I create a useful backup that I can restore from.?
I have mybackup Pro, and have created data backups, but when it comes to backing up my apps including APKs, the backup begins, then all the sudden my phone restarts and when I check the manage and restore areas, there are no backups for my apps.
Before I rooted my phone this program worked fine. Now all the sudden I cannot backup my apps.
I have also restored quite a bit from my previous backups, but the personalized settings for each app were not saved nor recovered.
At this point I have been unable to create any sort of useful backup, which means I do not want to risk downloading a new ROM such as ICS.
Im not sure how to procede, but my main question is why wont clockworkmod work to create a backup? it seems to easy to create a nandroid backup when browsing the forums, but for whatever reason my phone either freezes or reboots on its own when attempting to do so.
All other functions on my phone work correctly.
By the way, I have a samsung galaxy s2 epic 4g touch if that helps at all.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I really want to try some other ROMs, especially the newer versions of ICS since I am doubtful that anytime in the near future I will get an upgrade for it. especially with the s3 coming out with ICS already on it, I suspect it will be months before ICS becomes available for the S2, if it ever becomes available at all. I think manufacturuers and Sprint, Verizon and the like just want people to spend the extra money upgrading to the S3 and they will forget about the S2 alltogether.
Please advise how I can create a nandroid backup.
I have also downloaded titanium backup, but dont have the funds for the pro version, and on top of that, I have read that its a lot easier to brick your phone using that program since it is so much more powerful. Id rather stick to clockworkmod, but cannot create any sort of backup using it.
Any ideas? any suggestions? you guys seem very useful and intelligent when it comes to this stuff, and I literally just rooted my phone last weekend not more than 3 days ago and have had nothing but problems since. The root worked fine, my phone works fine including all functions, but I cant create a backup for the life of me.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you can try to flash a different kernel with different clockwork recovery or install a different clockwork recovery. Myself I always used Titanium backup and never had any problems (just took backup user applications not system applications), but I had an international galaxy s2. There is also rom toolbox which takes backups of your applications.

Try in the forum for your phone specifically in this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1587607
Sent from my M886 using Tapatalk 2

[Q] Lag

I have the charge running FP5 firmware and the Tweaked ROM 3.0.
I've run into a situation where the phone has become rather laggy and buggy.
Example: Click the notification for voicemail...wait 30 seconds and phone dials. or Phone battery dies. I plug it in and it charges up to 30%, then starts getting very laggy and non responsive. I reboot and am told battery power is really 50% and phone is good to go.
I'm used to rebooting the phone at least once a day or more. I'm looking for a way to correct the problems and bring the phone back to how it was when I last upgraded and and loaded the ROM... too bad I didn't backup the phone at that point. Anyways...I know that if I reload the firmware and apply the ROM, everything will work correctly again but I'll spend hours tweaking the settings to add custom ringtones and photos to contacts.
Is there some cache or data I can clear to fix this without clearing everything and starting over?
Mike
P.S. I'm keeping this phone until Verizon allows me to upgrade and keep unlimited data or the phone dies and I have to get another.

beavermjr said:
I have the charge running FP5 firmware and the Tweaked ROM 3.0.
I've run into a situation where the phone has become rather laggy and buggy.
Example: Click the notification for voicemail...wait 30 seconds and phone dials. or Phone battery dies. I plug it in and it charges up to 30%, then starts getting very laggy and non responsive. I reboot and am told battery power is really 50% and phone is good to go.
I'm used to rebooting the phone at least once a day or more. I'm looking for a way to correct the problems and bring the phone back to how it was when I last upgraded and and loaded the ROM... too bad I didn't backup the phone at that point. Anyways...I know that if I reload the firmware and apply the ROM, everything will work correctly again but I'll spend hours tweaking the settings to add custom ringtones and photos to contacts.
Is there some cache or data I can clear to fix this without clearing everything and starting over?
Mike
P.S. I'm keeping this phone until Verizon allows me to upgrade and keep unlimited data or the phone dies and I have to get another.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean Tweaked 3.2, right... if not first upgrade to the 3.2 version of the ROM... it is the current FP5 option.
There is a build.prop thing commented out at the bottom that should force launcher into memory (supposed to help with screen redraw issues, but might also help with general responsiveness). I think you could do it from root explorer, just edit the file, scrool down, read comments, when you find one that sounds like what I said just remove the "#" from the line below it.
re-installing tweaked might really help...
but you might try going into CWM and wiping cache only... NOT data & cache... JUST CACHE... that helped me when i had "funky" things going on on a different device/ROM worth a try.
Finally, you should always take a CWM backup, Nandroid, before poking around....
Also... check swappa for relatively cheap phones with no ties to VZW contract it is where i picked up the GN2 (if it is rooted and you don't want to show it off at the corp store, just call customer support say you are too busy store hours. They will send you the micro/mini SIM via FedEx.
Of course take what I say with a grain of salt... I am just a crazy guy from the internet
(oh great XDA... please correct me if I've misspoken)

Thanks for the info. I never did load Tweaked 3.2. I will put that on the back burner as I don't want to reload all the settings. Maybe I can load it without wiping data. Do you know? For now I will try wiping the cache and see if the phone improves.
Someday I'm gonna have to explore the latest OTA and a new ROM. I'm getting tired of ignoring the update message. either that or learn how to shut the message down. any recommendations on a ROM for the new OTA?

beavermjr said:
Thanks for the info. I never did load Tweaked 3.2. I will put that on the back burner as I don't want to reload all the settings. Maybe I can load it without wiping data. Do you know? For now I will try wiping the cache and see if the phone improves.
Someday I'm gonna have to explore the latest OTA and a new ROM. I'm getting tired of ignoring the update message. either that or learn how to shut the message down. any recommendations on a ROM for the new OTA?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will never tell someone "don't say it click the button"... However, I'm like pavlov's dog clicking the button is appreciated...
Not sure about a dirty flash... Never tried it. I got turned on to Root and Such well after FP5 and Tweaked 3.2 came out.
If you give it a go... You could retain much via Titanium Backup. Or just send a CWM Backup/Nandroid on the SD Card before playing around.
Either way...
There has to be a proper stop notification how to thread around here somewhere!
Cliffs Notes:
From a Root Friendly File Explorer (Like Root Explorer HERE, it is worth the $)
edit a line in "/system/build.prop"
Find
ro.build.fingerprint=verizon/SCH-I510/SCH-I510:2.3.6/GINGERBREAD/FP5:user/release-keys
replace the FP5 with FP8 so it reads:
ro.build.fingerprint=verizon/SCH-I510/SCH-I510:2.3.6/GINGERBREAD/FP8:user/release-keys
NOTE: BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO HOSE THE PERMISSIONS (If I recall some of the other "freebie" root file explorers break the permissions... Best to find that a real thread with all the details if you are not 100% confident.)
Also feel free to double check my facts... I'm just a crazy guy from the internet!
Good luck!
Edit Alert:
PS. While poking around at the tweaktools back-end, I noticed there were some mods that specifically addressed lag (I have little to no experience with them though... Just FYI...

beavermjr said:
Thanks for the info. I never did load Tweaked 3.2. I will put that on the back burner as I don't want to reload all the settings. Maybe I can load it without wiping data. Do you know? For now I will try wiping the cache and see if the phone improves.
Someday I'm gonna have to explore the latest OTA and a new ROM. I'm getting tired of ignoring the update message. either that or learn how to shut the message down. any recommendations on a ROM for the new OTA?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, you can flash tweak 3.2 over 3.0 without wiping data. not sure if it comes with the updated kernel, but I would certainly do that as well.
in terms of lag, try the crossbreeder mod on XDA - worked for my charge!

Random app crashes and problems

Hi, I have a samsung galaxy tab s2 the 9.7 inches one, but lately some apps have been crashing or having errors, chrome for example throws that snap somethjng wrong, perfect viewer sometimes gets stuck on an image and I cant chnge it, but all menus work, several apps keep crashing as well.
I have it with official firmware, never touched it, its rooted with magisk since before the problems started, apps that use root are file explorer, vanced manger and an app to disable some samsung bloatware.
I dont know how to troubleshoot android, on pc I would check memory and hdds, but theres nothing lkke that kn android that I could find.
I think it could be memory or storage, but everything Ive downloaded or copied/moved hasnt have any problems or errors. Or something is corrupted in the system, or I dont know what else or how to check.
What would you recommend to fix it? Hopefully starting with less drastic, as in less data loss, factory reset, flashing an original rom or somethjng.
The device is aSamsung galaxy tab s2 9.7 with android 7 with lean launcher.
All help is appreciated.

I believe this were an common issue for Android 7 and below !
and you have an old device and android which I believe it's no longer supported by the most of developers.
try to flash any custome roms & kernels if available.

If apps are randomly crashing then the reason might be it's caused by an update of Google's tool called Android System WebView.

Abdullah.Csit said:
I believe this were an common issue for Android 7 and below !
and you have an old device and android which I believe it's no longer supported by the most of developers.
try to flash any custome roms & kernels if available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it hasnt happened before until now, what would it fix using a custom rom instead of the original?
jwoegerbauer said:
If apps are randomly crashing then the reason might be it's caused by an update of Google's tool called Android System WebView.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had that problem with my phone, my tablet never got that update.
Thanks

Clear system cache...

Wiped dalvik and system cache, but still having the same problems.
Thanks

totopesce said:
Wiped dalvik and system cache, but still having the same problems.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using the stock launcher.
See what apks are running and cached right when this happens is it may give you a clue.
I would completely backup all critical data now.
Android is normally very stable.
Scan with Malwarebytes. If you can't find the root cause, suspect a virus, rootkit etc.
This is rare but can happen.
Karma Firewall can help you to see what's accessing what and how often. It uses almost no battery or resources, freeware, adfree, a near perfect little app.

Cant remove lean launcher it gets stuck in android is starting and it doesnt let me change to stock, installed nova just to check if it was lean and still the same problems.
Installed malwarebytes, had to run the scan several times cause it kept crashing, it completed and it didnt find anything.
Installed karma firewall and will see if I find anything.
Thanks

totopesce said:
Cant remove lean launcher it gets stuck in android is starting and it doesnt let me change to stock, installed nova just to check if it was lean and still the same problems.
Installed malwarebytes, had to run the scan several times cause it kept crashing, it completed and it didnt find anything.
Installed karma firewall and will see if I find anything.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Figure out how to get the stock launcher back.
Any 3rd party app you can't uninstall is already malware. Check Device Administrators to see if it's registered there. Nova is no saint either.
If you can't resolve it error on the side of caution that it is malware and nuke it. Sometimes you never find out which one it was... getting rid of it is all that matters.

Sorry, what I meant was that after uninstalling it it got stuck in androiid is starting, somehow I lost the stock launcher, so it got stuck with no launcher. Found the launcher that came stock, installed it and uninstalled the other 2.
Apps are still crashing, I deleted all apps that I dont really use.

totopesce said:
Sorry, what I meant was that after uninstalling it it got stuck in androiid is starting, somehow I lost the stock launcher, so it got stuck with no launcher. Found the launcher that came stock, installed it and uninstalled the other 2.
Apps are still crashing, I deleted all apps that I dont really use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, that can crash it for sure.
See if you can find a common apk between the effected apps. Any recent system app updates?
New or uninstalled apps?
A system apk may have gotten corrupted.
Android is pretty good compared to Windows when uninstalling apps but occasionally a poorly designed app will screw it up.
It's just about factory reset time or your equivalent.
If it an old load that's probably best anyway.
I haven't reloaded in almost a year but I'm ready to go at any time.
Takes me about 2 hours to get it back within 99%. All the data I need for a full restore is on my SD card otherwise it would an additional 6-8 hours to restore the SD card data as well.
If you don't have a complete reload plan that saves all your critical data no matter what, implement one now before you get burnt.
Those stories are too common here

Dont remember when it started, cause at first it was one app from a github that was having problems, then yesterday magisk started and when I got that working it all when to hell.
The app that I use most has a backup/restore file that I saved on my sd, what do you use to backup/restore?
I would think that some backup solution could bring the problem back or am I mistaken, like if you fully restore something corrupted it should still be corrupted?
A factory reset could be corrupted as well? I mean after a factory reset, assuming its software, could it still have the same problems?
Though I dont really have any critical data on the tablet its mostly for browsing, youtube and reading comics. Still its a bother to re configure everything xD. IIRC I think its only been factory reset once.
Thanks.

It's unlikely the factory reload image is corrupted.
The current one your using likely is.
Other than apps that allow you to back them up like Poweramp or perhaps bookmarks, most app data I would write off just in case that was connected to the current issues.
None of my database is on internal memory except DCIM and downloads (both I back it up at least monthly). Critical apps like Poweramp are backed up on the SD card as export backup files.
The Poweramp setup would literally take a week to recreate. Most apps you can throw together rather easily.
All the SD card data is then again backed up at least twice to other separate drives.
I will try Samsung Smart Switch to restore home settings and see how it does on the next reset.
If you issues are of unknown origins being conservative about what you allow on the new load could save you more time in the long run.
If you unintentionally import corrupted data you'll end up doing it over again.
Or do so if the reload time isn't that great and is an easy write off for you.
Fun times... especially if the reload doesn't fix it

Did a factory reset and problem solved, took me less time than I thought to get my most used apps ready to go.
Thanks for the help.

totopesce said:
Did a factory reset and problem solved, took me less time than I thought to get my most used apps ready to go.
Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yay! Success!
And a minty fresh OS load.
Load apps and especially updates over time to see if one these were the cause.
Forced reloads are rare but they happen usually caused by a rogue app screwing up boot or a malware infection. Otherwise you can usually track down the root cause which is preferable to avoid it from happening again.
Lazy techs misuse factory reset a lot

Will do that, install apps just as I need them and try not to instal a bunch at once.
I had a problem with an sd card and sent it to samsung, they did just that factory reset it and gave it back with the same problem, and they dont even let you know so you can back your stuff up, just lucky it was fairly new at the time and I had the sd card with me.

totopesce said:
Will do that, install apps just as I need them and try not to instal a bunch at once.
I had a problem with an sd card and sent it to samsung, they did just that factory reset it and gave it back with the same problem, and they dont even let you know so you can back your stuff up, just lucky it was fairly new at the time and I had the sd card with me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sammy tech support sucks.
I'm using the Lexar .5 tb V30 card, just format in phone and it's good to go. Zero issues for $64.
Been using it for over a year now. Play movies and music from it all the time from it flawlessly.
Been using Lexar flash cards for over 15 years and all cards are still functional. No failures or card related issues at all. I like that brand a lot.

Whatsapp backup restoring

I'm actually in a very serious problem as I have a problem with restoring my whatsapp messages please help me asap I uninstalled my whatsapp on 16th July and last I backed up it on 7th July. Now when I try to restore the messages after reinstalling it shows my google account but it doesn't show the size of backup and also it says no Internet connection please help me. Also my whatsapp images and whatsapp videos folders have disappeared. I really want to get back my chats. Hope someone will really help me as it means alot to me now

Connect to a wifi or a hotspot, or get better signal then H+

Kenora_I said:
Connect to a wifi or a hotspot, or get better signal then H+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already using WiFi and I tried using mobile data as well both didn't help and I tried reseting network settings and all still it didn't work out

ruinaaaa said:
I'm already using WiFi and I tried using mobile data as well both didn't help and I tried reseting network settings and all still it didn't work out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you check your google account the backup.
It could be app problem, try resetting and other stuff.

Kenora_I said:
Did you check your google account the backup.
It could be app problem, try resetting and other stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey yes I checked it as well in google drive it shows the backup I can't restore it locally because I deleted the whatsapp databases like or two months ago will it affect this

Try clearing the data and cache of whatsapp or reinstall it.

Kenora_I said:
Try clearing the data and cache of whatsapp or reinstall it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this too and tried so many things.I watched so many youtube videos and searched a lot in google as well still couldn't find any possible way to recover

Albert83BCN said:
Hi guys!
I have been facing this issue this whole week while trying to move all my chats to a new phone I just bought as with the old one the charging port was dying and I could not bear it anymore. So almost everything restored smoothly from Google Backup and it was like being in my phone again with a few wizard steps but then I Installed WhatsApp (WA) and gone through the typical activation and restoring process and. as many, I got stuck at the 24% sometimes, some others 31% and 39%, and never got past the 39%.
I Tried almost everything: restoring from Google Drive, transfer all WhatsApp directory to internal storage and trying to restore from there, etc. Going back to the old phone to create fresh backups just in case they were corrupted as many people suggests, getting every time more delay to be able to activate WhatsApp again up to 12h for both SMS and call activation... just to mess again and feel back at square one, I guess you all feel the pain.
Well, the good news is that I finally managed to restore all the chat history!!! (well, cannot be certain that 100% was restored but I do not miss anything ATM and I can go back up to 2012 chats so I guess that qualifies as "everything" hehe).
So, I'm posting here because I've been searching a lot on the forums and the reddit and for all the people that is having this issue recently, almost no body came back to report success and I know it feels really discouraging It certainly gives the impression that this issue has no fix at all, and that you should accept losing all the chat history and starting from the start again. But from all the data I've been gathering during this week, at least two or three people reported to eventually being able to restore the chat; they fell in one of these two categories: they either transferred to a different phone where the backup seemed to restore okay, and then exported and restored in the target phone with success (something like a "bridge" restore mode, most of the cases I've read did it this way) or they finally succeeded by sheer brute force by trying again and again and again.
I fall in this 2nd category. In the most recent attempt I was doing what I've been doing again and again and again with just minor variations in the workflow and finally succeeded. TL; DR; I think in reality in many cases attempts could succeed by just letting the phone restore the backup endlessly, by not giving up and assuming the restore process went wrong when it has been stuck forever at either 24, 31 or 39% and force closing..
But I know in the midst of desperation OCD kicks in and you want step-by-step success case scenario reproduction so I will tell you all the steps that I followed that I can remember that got me to finally have the backup to end successfully:
0. First of all, in the winning attempt I had already uninstalled WA from the new phone and removed totally the WA folder in the internal storage / sdcard storage. Not sure this is mandatory but just to tell this was the case.
1. Since I got WA working perfectly on the old phone at every moment, I backed up locally for the Nth f%!?&·( time. This left me with the latest local backup plus a few others in the databases folder as a result of keep messing up.
2. I copied the full WhatsApp directory from the internal storage of the old phone to a safe place. This could be the PC or whatever, but PC transfer via USB seems too sloppy. You maybe could do it via ADB, whatever, I went by the route of coping it to the external SD with some random explorer utility like ES File Explorer. It does not matter, the point is to be able to backup the full WhatsApp folder in order to restore it as similar as possible as the original. What we are more interested right now is in the database folder but having all images, videos etc in place will help in getting it like before the easiest way. (Disclaimer: Ok guys sorry if some steps are too obvious to XDA users which usually are highly educated in the matter, but I was thinking of sharing/linking this text on the reddit and others, so please bear with it).
3. I installed latest WA in the new phone, opened the app (I intended to not open but I somewhat forgot) and got to the welcome screen, immediately closed the app at that step.
3. I restored the full folder to the new phone internal storage, pure copy/paste style (as said, in my case via the SD since both phones have SD slot and was very convenient, but via USB, cloud, etc. can be done).
4. I went to the databases folder and only kept the msgstore.db.crypt12 file and the latest backup with a date (ie: msgstore-2019-11-21.db.crypt12), deleted the rest. Honestly I do not think this is crucial but I somewhat wanted to make it easier for WA to know which one to target, I thought about keeping only the msgstore.db.crypt12 but some random dude pointed that the one with the date was needed. I was under the assumption that file structure is identical in both but just wanted to get done with this and keep both, just in case.
5. Before opening again the WA to try to activate and restore with this full local copy, I opened the Android settings app and went to applications > whatasapp > storage, as suggested by user redweaver, thanks for the tip! by keeping looking at the storage usage of the app during the restore process we could get insight about if it was really doing something or the app was really stuck. Keep open for now. In my case, I saw also on the old phone that my data used for the app was 780+ MB, so I had an idea of what should be on the new phone by the time it finished (if it did!).
5b. I don't think this is really necessary but I did it just in case. I was planning to go to work and let the thing running as long as it would need, and I would make sure that the process would get maximum uptime and nothing would get in the way. So I went to Applications > WhatsApp > Battery usage (or something like it) and disabled the battery optimizations for this app. I also went to the developer mode settings and enabled do not lock the phone while it is charging and everything that looked like it might be relevant. Again, most likely this has nothing to do, but reproducible steps, right?
6. Now open WA and activate it as usual, but when it seems that the activation step ended and you go to the next screen, immediately put the phone in air plane mode or disable data/WiFi, whatever. The goal is that it cannot reach Google Drive to look for the online backup. Honestly maybe in the end is not the culprit of GDrive but many people states that the GD backup is broken at this time and suggests going the local route, so we will do it like this.
7. WA should tell you that looking for the backup is going too slow and to skip this step (sorry to not have exact message, I have it in Spanish, but something in these lines, BTW excuse my somewhat limited English ). The point here is to click on the link that says skip the step and when you are prompted with a popup, click also on Skip.
8. WA will display the typical restore / transfer-like screen where the process starts. At this point you have to enable again data plan / WiFi at least or exit air plane mode, don't know really but even if restoring from local it complains about not having internet connection, maybe needs it to encrypt with the key or something? don't know.
9. Now is the feared moment! Even this time, I got somewhat stuck at 31% again. I left it do its thing, and some time later, it prompted for the popup that has a progress-bar from 0 to 100 (honestly, what is the difference between both?!) which also got stuck at 31%. If you let it be, it starts going back and forth many times, I guess maybe its going chat per chat and the progress-bar represents each one? Dunno. Thing is, even in the prior attempts I got at this point and the backup did not finish successfully. But this time I was decided to let it do its thing as much time as it would take, until the end. In the process the phone might display a pop up saying that WA does not respond. I clicked a few times in the 'keep waiting' option, then I just forgot because I did not have time to mess with it and hoped that it was still working on the background, which bring us to step 10.
10. While we are contemplating the backup process, we can go to the settings app again and look how the internal data is going for the WA. In my case, after some time under the restore process, when I went there I saw WA had occupied 0.91 GB of data space. After going back and forth again between WA and settings, the usage keep growing: 0.96, 1.03, 1.10... I thought it was on the right track, and encouraged me to keep waiting. Maybe in the end the process is too slow for old databases. Note that some people speculates that having messages from very long ago might be the culprit here due to changes in the table structure and that this might be the reason breaking the restore process. And maybe it is the case, but even if it is, in my case I finally succeeded where previously I didn't and without deleting anything, so this does not seem to be a deal-breaker or I would have never succeeded. I say it because some people reported that deleting old conversations and trying again finally made them succeed. Now I suspect the true reason was simply that by making the database smaller the process finished earlier, but YMMV.
11. Cannot be totally sure, but in my case, I noticed that leaving WA on the background and clicking on the WA icon again might stop the process for true and bring a message about not being able to recover the chats, I got this previously, do not try to open the WA normally, only leave it temporally to look to the space usage in the settings to get back to it by swyping between recent apps to keep the same instance open and working, this was a key point in my success trial that did not happen during the previous ones.
12. And finally, while I kept switching between WA and the settings and when I last saw like 1.30GB of space used (almost twice the space compared to the old phone, maybe it leaves a lot of temp data) I don't know if I either messed with the app-switching or it really finished, but then I got prompted to the screen where you enter your name or nickname. And when I completed this step, I finally got to the chats screen and everything was like in the old phone! Where previously I would get to a lot of empty chat rooms with maybe 40 total messages restored according to WA. Hurray!
Notice that in my case it was still reporting 31% on the WA background screen under the progress bar popup when it finished!! so it seems that is not really mandatory to experience the 100% complete to have it work in the end, but YMMV.
OK, maybe not the most elegant "guide" out there but I wrote it in a hurry and my english sucks, I just hope it might help someone to not lose their WA chats forever.
Good luck!
Edit: I almost forgot but, for the sake of completeness. I also tried a certain script that can backup WA from the phone and retrieve the encryption key, it will also leave an unencrypted copy of the chats database that can later be viewed with a WhatsApp viewer like this. The script is called WhatsApp Key/DB Extractor, and it still works as of 2019, just look at the latest posts in the thread. Guys here on XDA most likely know about it but if not, you might give it a try. I tried it because I assumed that maybe I could circumvent the restore issues by going that route and pushing the backup via ADB, but turns out the legacy WA won't prepare the database due to the time out of sync issue, or at least the data seemed to be lost after performing the restore process, and the unencrypted database on the PC cannot be digested by WA latest versions by just putting it into the internal storage directly according to what other users commented. But, if you finally give up trying the restore process, it still could be relieving to know that you keep a local copy in the PC that can be viewed with another PC tool, at least you get a backup and the conversations are there, in a different way though. Maybe in the future there's a process that can restore them again to a different phone, and you could then merge the new chat database with the older backup with tools like Merjeapp.
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This has the solution

Kenora_I said:
This has the solution
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Thank you but today I read this in the afternoon. This guy has solved it through whatsapp databases but I don't have a way go backup locally as I deleted my whatsapp databases two months ago. All I can do is recovering from google drive but the thing in this guy's scenario his chat was actually being restoring but I can't even do that since it says that I have an Internet connection problem