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[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.

Restore TWRP Backup?

Hi, just have a quick question that's been bugging me for a while now. If I have made a full backup using TWRP and I want to restore it, should I:
Fully wipe system and caches and then restore; or just restore right over my current ROM?

****, good question
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

Restore takes care of wiping for you.

Piggybacking off the OP, sometimes when I try to restore my TWRP backup it fails, and then the only way I've found to get it working again is to do a boot loader factory reset, and then essentially start from scratch or load an older working backup. No problem, just a minor annoyance. Is there something I'm doing wrong or any advice someone can give me?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

Hydromea said:
Hi, just have a quick question that's been bugging me for a while now. If I have made a full backup using TWRP and I want to restore it, should I:
Fully wipe system and caches and then restore; or just restore right over my current ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always wipe everything before a restore, just in case
Better safe than sorry

Restoring a back up !
When restoring a back up from any recovery wipe everything just as if you were installing a new rom. Factory reset, cache, dalvik cache, system just to be safe. Factory reset wipes data and all cache but not system and if you do a factory reset and then try to wipe I think dalvik again you get an error but no harm done it just will not do it again. I usually do them all and then do the superwipe zip and that willl give you a good piece of mind that it is properly wiped. Also, I have noticed that using the external sd card seems to work best for installing roms or backing up and restoring back ups or anything else like mods or themes. Here is the superwipe zip in case anyone needs it.

Hydromea said:
Hi, just have a quick question that's been bugging me for a while now. If I have made a full backup using TWRP and I want to restore it, should I:
Fully wipe system and caches and then restore; or just restore right over my current ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done both, but I like not having reinstall all my apps, and reset all my ringtone, and that goes with a full wipe. so when ever i can i flash over. Just make sure your slashing the same rom over the old one.

You shouldn't worry about losing ANYTHING on a backup when you do a factory reset, because the backup houses all of the data and settings anyway.
All you do is Factory Reset, Nandroid>Restore, and your old backup will flash everything the way it was when you did a backup in the first place. Factory Reset is always wise, especially when you're fiddling with different ROM's based on different kernels or systems (AOSP/Sense).

XNine said:
You shouldn't worry about losing ANYTHING on a backup when you do a factory reset, because the backup houses all of the data and settings anyway.
All you do is Factory Reset, Nandroid>Restore, and your old backup will flash everything the way it was when you did a backup in the first place. Factory Reset is always wise, especially when you're fiddling with different ROM's based on different kernels or systems (AOSP/Sense).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, this is true I recant my statement. I was mistakenly thinking about flashing a new ROM over an older version, not a buck-up. I feel stupid.

when restoring a nandroid if you've got the new HBoot I think you have to restore boot.img separately via fastboot. Is that right?

gunnyman said:
when restoring a nandroid if you've got the new HBoot I think you have to restore boot.img separately via fastboot. Is that right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. I just flashed a bunch of roms yesterday and did restores with no issue. I think if your using the stock rooted 2.2 you are correct, but any other rom a restore works fine.

Not Restoring = Bad Idea
Hydromea said:
Hi, just have a quick question that's been bugging me for a while now. If I have made a full backup using TWRP and I want to restore it, should I:
Fully wipe system and caches and then restore; or just restore right over my current ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have made the mistake of not wiping everything (excluding sd card) when changing ROMs or when restoring from a backup. This may be a little different because it was when I was switching to a new ROM on my brother's phone, but I tried to take the lazy way out and not restore everything. I really didn't feel like redownloading everything. I soon learned that this was a mistake, and his "phone" app suddenly disappeared. He was also unable to send or receive texts. This soon made the process even longer than I wished it to be because I needed to go back and restore everything again and get it back to normal.

Error While Restoring using twrp
I took a back up of everything using TWRP and then when i tried to restored its giving me error while restoring system E:Unable to extract tar archive . Please help

Are you trying to restore a backup from a different version of TWRP? For example, currently running 2.7.0.8 but backup was originally made using 2.3.3.1?
Sent from my Evita

error on backup restore twrp
hi i have a nexus 4 running 6.0.1 reserection remix, however when i do a backup on twrp then transfer
it to my pc its fine, but when i restore it it not going as a zip and its giving me this error, could not find meta-inf/com/google/android/update-binary' in the zip file. error installing zip file/sdcard/twrp/backups/01c237769c62991c.zip please help, thanks
Become a member of the w

WOW! After a good 3/4 days of frustration, thinking I had ruined my device, I finally got my TWRP backup to restore.
It's my first time using this software and the restoration process is truly amazing. I mean, my test messages were still there, even my browser history and last page loaded up in chrome were still there. I'm blown away.
The strange thing is that It didn't work when all 3 partitions were selected. When I tried it this way (as per the many step by step instructions that I read) my phone would load up a black screen with just the notification bar visible. I'd see my voicemail, sms, wifi and battery icons at the top, but absolutely nothing else except for a myriad of pop ups that read 'Unfortunately [app name] has stopped working'.
So I bit the bullet and did some trial and error with the partitions.
Turns out that when I only selected 2 of the 3 (I believe they were 'Boot', 'Data' and deselected 'System') everything loaded up just as it was before the backup, except there were only the stock apps available and no google services at all. .....Very odd.
So I did the boot to recovery method before turning the phone off (vol. up - Home - Power) which restarted the phone and strangely brought back EVERYTHING as mentioned at the start of this post.
You can probably understand my confusion here and while I'm VERY happy that it all worked out, I don't understand why it worked with only 2 of the partitions but not with the recommended 3 of them?
Can anyone shed any light on this?
---------- Post added at 01:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 PM ----------
debmikeshan said:
hi i have a nexus 4 running 6.0.1 reserection remix, however when i do a backup on twrp then transfer
it to my pc its fine, but when i restore it it not going as a zip and its giving me this error, could not find meta-inf/com/google/android/update-binary' in the zip file. error installing zip file/sdcard/twrp/backups/01c237769c62991c.zip please help, thanks
Become a member of the w
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. I'm definitely no pro at this stuff, in fact i'm very new when it comes to using TWRP, but this is what happened with me.
First of all, the backup that I did was simply a folder of files, not zip.
Transferred that do my PC, wiped my phone with TWRP and replaced the backup folder back into the TWRP/Backup folder. However, after reading up on how to restore on about 10 different android sites/forums, only 1 post shared the most vital piece of information.
You folder has to be in the 'serial' number folder that's located in the 'Backup' folder for TWRP.
When I put my backup folder just into the TWRP/Backup folder, the Restore section would only see the folder itself but the partitions were not available/listed for selection.
Once I placed my Backup folder into the TWRP/Backup/e1oog75 (that alphanumeric name is just a random example made for visual clarity) folder, my partitions were visible and available for selection right away.
Hopefully this helps somewhat.

[HELP] Bass Loss After Uninstalling Viper4Android

Hello,
I have a rooted Samsung J2 2016. I thought of getting Viper4Android and when I tried to install the drivers it just said drivers installed reboot your phone. I rebooted it 2 times but still it said driver 0.0.0.0 and would ask for permission for updating drivers again. Fed up of this I went to Link2SD app and uninstalled the app. As I had flashed the zip file for Viper, it erased the sound drivers(I think) and I couldnt get any audio through the ear phones so I decided to do a factory reset of the phone by flashing the latest firmware update(This usually removes all apps, TWRP and root from my phone). After I did the factory reset I noticed that all the apps that I had before were still thereconfused I ignored it and plugged in my headphones only to find a complete loss in bass. I tried to tweak the inbuilt equalizer but nothing came out of it. After restarting, bass would enable for a few seconds and then it would disable again. I dont know what to do now. How can I get back my deleted drivers(if they got deleted)?
P.S. I had taken a complete backup but it got erased from the SD card after I formatted it as portable storage( I had it enabled for adoptable storage through root essentials. This might be the reason why the phone didnt factory reset) :crying:
Sorry for the long post. Im a beginner at this. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you
Edit- I tried different earphones and different music players but no success

darshan1504 said:
Hello,
I have a rooted Samsung J2 2016. I thought of getting Viper4Android and when I tried to install the drivers it just said drivers installed reboot your phone. I rebooted it 2 times but still it said driver 0.0.0.0 and would ask for permission for updating drivers again. Fed up of this I went to Link2SD app and uninstalled the app. As I had flashed the zip file for Viper, it erased the sound drivers(I think) and I couldnt get any audio through the ear phones so I decided to do a factory reset of the phone by flashing the latest firmware update(This usually removes all apps, TWRP and root from my phone). After I did the factory reset I noticed that all the apps that I had before were still thereconfused I ignored it and plugged in my headphones only to find a complete loss in bass. I tried to tweak the inbuilt equalizer but nothing came out of it. After restarting, bass would enable for a few seconds and then it would disable again. I dont know what to do now. How can I get back my deleted drivers(if they got deleted)?
P.S. I had taken a complete backup but it got erased from the SD card after I formatted it as portable storage( I had it enabled for adoptable storage through root essentials. This might be the reason why the phone didnt factory reset) :crying:
Sorry for the long post. Im a beginner at this. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you
Edit- I tried different earphones and different music players but no success
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably needed to make sure you had SELinux set to permissive mode, then V4A would probably install the driver and reboot correctly without having to do it again.
You have 2 options:
1) reflash your stock firmware or your custom ROM, whichever one you're using. This will replace what was removed when you flashed V4A zip.
Or
2) enable permissive mode and try V4A again.
Or if you'd like, you can flash your stock or custom ROM just to get things back to a clean start and then try installing V4A again in permissive mode and see if it works right this time.
By the way, when flashing with Odin, it doesn't erase user data unless what you're flashing includes an upgraded/downgraded bootloader. When flashing exactly what you had, it leaves your data intact.
This time, when you flash stock firmware via Odin, boot the device to recovery and factory reset from within recovery, this will wipe user data, then connect to Odin and flash firmware. This should return everything to like it came out of the box.
By the way, in android, the term "factory reset" does not mean flashing stock firmware, that's called "factory restore".
In android, the term factory reset is something completely different, in android, it means wiping user data and leaving only the stock software.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
You probably needed to make sure you had SELinux set to permissive mode, then V4A would probably install the driver and reboot correctly without having to do it again.
You have 2 options:
1) reflash your stock firmware or your custom ROM, whichever one you're using. This will replace what was removed when you flashed V4A zip.
Or
2) enable permissive mode and try V4A again.
Or if you'd like, you can flash your stock or custom ROM just to get things back to a clean start and then try installing V4A again in permissive mode and see if it works right this time.
By the way, when flashing with Odin, it doesn't erase user data unless what you're flashing includes an upgraded/downgraded bootloader. When flashing exactly what you had, it leaves your data intact.
This time, when you flash stock firmware via Odin, boot the device to recovery and factory reset from within recovery, this will wipe user data, then connect to Odin and flash firmware. This should return everything to like it came out of the box.
By the way, in android, the term "factory reset" does not mean flashing stock firmware, that's called "factory restore".
In android, the term factory reset is something completely different, in android, it means wiping user data and leaving only the stock software.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for replying. The problem is that I am running the stock touchwiz samsung ROM so SELinuxModeChanger doesn't work for me. I would like to go with the second option but I can't find any other method to make it permissive. Can you please help me with this? I dont want to do a factory reset cause talking the phone back to how it is will be a real pain and time consuming. Will just flashing the Viper file again do the job in any way?

Droidriven said:
You probably needed to make sure you had SELinux set to permissive mode, then V4A would probably install the driver and reboot correctly without having to do it again.
You have 2 options:
1) reflash your stock firmware or your custom ROM, whichever one you're using. This will replace what was removed when you flashed V4A zip.
Or
2) enable permissive mode and try V4A again.
Or if you'd like, you can flash your stock or custom ROM just to get things back to a clean start and then try installing V4A again in permissive mode and see if it works right this time.
By the way, when flashing with Odin, it doesn't erase user data unless what you're flashing includes an upgraded/downgraded bootloader. When flashing exactly what you had, it leaves your data intact.
This time, when you flash stock firmware via Odin, boot the device to recovery and factory reset from within recovery, this will wipe user data, then connect to Odin and flash firmware. This should return everything to like it came out of the box.
By the way, in android, the term "factory reset" does not mean flashing stock firmware, that's called "factory restore".
In android, the term factory reset is something completely different, in android, it means wiping user data and leaving only the stock software.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also sir I found an old complete titanium backup on my laptop. So can it have the original drivers? If yes can I restore them using titanium and how?
I am sorry for asking so many questions but listening to music is what I do most of the times and I am feeling guilty for screwing up something that I like the most and that I can not restore it :crying:

darshan1504 said:
Also sir I found an old complete titanium backup on my laptop. So can it have the original drivers? If yes can I restore them using titanium and how?
I am sorry for asking so many questions but listening to music is what I do most of the times and I am feeling guilty for screwing up something that I like the most and that I can not restore it :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you need wouldn't be in a Titanium Backup file unless you backed up system apps and their data.
If you had a TWRP backup from before you installed V4A then you could use that. Otherwise than that, you'll have to flash stock firmware or at least manually reinstall the stock sound app and it's resources.
Best option to be sure you fix it without having to dig through anything is to flash stock firmware and start over and do it correctly the next time.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
What you need wouldn't be in a Titanium Backup file unless you backed up system apps and their data.
If you had a TWRP backup from before you installed V4A then you could use that. Otherwise than that, you'll have to flash stock firmware or at least manually reinstall the stock sound app and it's resources.
Best option to be sure you fix it without having to dig through anything is to flash stock firmware and start over and do it correctly the next time.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The titanium backup is a complete system backup. I had chosen the backup all apps and system data option in Titanium and when I went through the backup files, I found the Sound Alive files in it. Those files were different from the ones which I currently have. So this is what I have in the end. If this is useful then fine. Otherwise there's no other option left I guess

darshan1504 said:
The titanium backup is a complete system backup. I had chosen the backup all apps and system data option in Titanium and when I went through the backup files, I found the Sound Alive files in it. Those files were different from the ones which I currently have. So this is what I have in the end. If this is useful then fine. Otherwise there's no other option left I guess
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not a complete system backup because Titanium Backup can't do a complete system backup, the only part of system it can backup is system apps and their app data, it doesn't backup anything else from system. TWRP can make a complete system backup but Titanium Backup can't.
If you backed up the system apps themselves then yes, you can restore them but I wouldn't restore any of the app data that goes with those system apps.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
No, it's not a complete system backup because Titanium Backup can't do a complete system backup, the only part of system it can backup is system apps and their app data, it doesn't backup anything else from system. TWRP can make a complete system backup but Titanium Backup can't.
If you backed up the system apps themselves then yes, you can restore them but I wouldn't restore any of the app data that goes with those system apps.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a factory reset through TWRP and flashed it again. That did the trick. Thank you for all the help

Settings reset issue on every restart??

So I decided to flash some ROMS on my Alcatel 5045D but I wasn't completely happy with them so I decided to go back to the stock ROM.
Before flashing anything, I made a full backup of all the partitions via TWRP to be able to restore it.
So here is the problem: After restoring it, it works, but every time I restart the phone, all my settings and app permissions reset.
What I've already tried:
- Restore the backup again
- Wipe Caches
- Wipe Data, System and Caches and then restore the backup again
Is there any solution for this without flashing a downloaded stock ROM?

pepesasa said:
So I decided to flash some ROMS on my Alcatel 5045D but I wasn't completely happy with them so I decided to go back to the stock ROM.
Before flashing anything, I made a full backup of all the partitions via TWRP to be able to restore it.
So here is the problem: After restoring it, it works, but every time I restart the phone, all my settings and app permissions reset.
What I've already tried:
- Restore the backup again
- Wipe Caches
- Wipe Data, System and Caches and then restore the backup again
Is there any solution for this without flashing a downloaded stock ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, but it might turn into a wild goose chase, it is simpler and easier to just flash the stock firmware file via your device's compatible flashtool and be done with the issue.
If you are worried about losing data, you can backup your data by other means than TWRP, then flash the stock firmware, then restore your data then reflash TWRP.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

Can I backup & restore including appdata with TWRP?

In the past I've always backed up my complete ROM incl. appdata with twrp. I didn't have to competely setup my device if flashing went wrong and reverted to stock. I had some bad luck flashing roms because the A/B slots are new to me. I now have my bootloader unlocked and everything setup on stock OOS, and made a twrp backup of super, recovery and data.
Before flashing another ROM I just want to make sure I can revert easily to the previous OS without doing a complete setup of app settings and stuff
My question is
Can I wipe/factory reset and then just restore with twrp?
Do I restore when in the active slot where current os is?
Are there any issues with password/encryption when restoring?
Expected scenario;
I'm on stock OOS, wiped and want to restore appdata, settings, homescreen, etc...
I failed to install custom ROM and want to revert to stock OOS without having to redo the entire setup
I did search google and this forum for an answer or guide but couldn't find one (please correct me if I missed a thread)

yusisushi said:
In the past I've always backed up my complete ROM incl. appdata with twrp. I didn't have to competely setup my device if flashing went wrong and reverted to stock. I had some bad luck flashing roms because the A/B slots are new to me. I now have my bootloader unlocked and everything setup on stock OOS, and made a twrp backup of super, recovery and data.
Before flashing another ROM I just want to make sure I can revert easily to the previous OS without doing a complete setup of app settings and stuff
My question is
Can I wipe/factory reset and then just restore with twrp?
Do I restore when in the active slot where current os is?
Are there any issues with password/encryption when restoring?
Expected scenario;
I'm on stock OOS, wiped and want to restore appdata, settings, homescreen, etc...
I failed to install custom ROM and want to revert to stock OOS without having to redo the entire setup
I did search google and this forum for an answer or guide but couldn't find one (please correct me if I missed a thread)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you read the first 3 posts of https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...recovery-project-8t-kebab-2022-03-09.4302449/ ?

BillGoss said:
Did you read the first 3 posts of https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...recovery-project-8t-kebab-2022-03-09.4302449/ ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HI, yes I did
I am still confused because it says before a restore I have to disable screenlock, if my phone is softbricked or has no OS does that count as not having fingerprint/lockscreen enabled?

yusisushi said:
HI, yes I did
I am still confused because it says before a restore I have to disable screenlock, if my phone is softbricked or has no OS does that count as not having fingerprint/lockscreen enabled?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you start TWRP, does it prompt you for a password/pin/pattern?
If Yes, then you have a lock screen password set. And if you can't get into the system to disable it, you'll have to format data (completely wipes all data).
If No, then you're good to go.

BillGoss said:
When you start TWRP, does it prompt you for a password/pin/pattern?
If Yes, then you have a lock screen password set. And if you can't get into the system to disable it, you'll have to format data (completely wipes all data).
If No, then you're good to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, first of all; thank you for taking time to help me!
I managed to completely wipe the phone including data, and afterwards I restored it by copying the backup (which was now on my computer) and restoring it. SUCCESS! All appdata seems to be there, homescreen, and after second reboot my fingerprint still worked as before.
I just have one more question if you don't mind;
Below partitions I backed up;
Data
Boot
DTBO
Super
However, I'm not able to copy over the "super" partition from my computer to my phone, is this normal? it's almost 8GB and I was convinced I wasn't going to get to the OS without restoring it but apparently I didn't need it (?)
I suppose with the Fastboot Enhance Tool I'll be able to also restore this?

You really only need to backup the "system" partitions (boot, dtbo, super) if you're changing to custom ROMs. If you're always on OOS then you can forget about backing them up.
You should be able to copy the full backup, including super files from your PC to your phone using ADB. I've done that lots of times.
I've never used the tool you referred to. But I do know that you can't use fastboot to flash the super partition - it's too big.
However, if you break it up into chunks (I did it in 512MB chunks) using SparseConverter (https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/tool-sparseconverter-v1-0-1.2749797/) then you can successfully flash it.

Just to confirm, if a ROM bootloops and I don't have access to a computer, there's no way to restore the TWRP backup? Seems like this defeats the point of even making on-device backups (AFAIK encryption can't be disabled for many roms)

tech.central said:
Just to confirm, if a ROM bootloops and I don't have access to a computer, there's no way to restore the TWRP backup? Seems like this defeats the point of even making on-device backups (AFAIK encryption can't be disabled for many roms)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can enter TWRP (even if your rom bootloops) there is a great chance you can restore backup in TWRP.