I want to move my daughter from broken phone to insurance replacement phone. I'd like it to be as seamless as possible so she feels as if she's still using the same phone (home widgets and app shortcuts retained, pictures, documents, etc)
Both phones are i535 on (currently) Unrooted Stock NE1.
Today is my first day ever working with this phone but i have done my homework.
I'd prefer Nandroid if possible/practical, though from what i understand requires a custom recovery.
Questions:
1. Can a Nandroid backup/restore be done on Safestrapped NE1?
2. If so, is Safestrap my only Nandroid option?
3. Can backup from old phone be restored to new phone?
4. Is there a chance that device specific info would be overwritten (IMEI) and cause problems?
5. Am I overlooking an obvious way to make this phone switch happen? (please don't say google account backup)
thanks
I had to have this complete before her flight the next day. No immediate replies so I just had to go for it. Everything went fairly smooth except for one unexpected detail that was easily corrected.
Since the original phone was being replaced because of damaged USB port, an adb to computer, Kies, etc. backups were ruled out as an option. Had to go with backup to SD. I love Titanium Backup, but I've never fully explored it's nandroid abilities. Custom recovery was my obvious first choice anyway but I'm limited to Safestrap or maybe Flashfire (not sure). Since I've never had to restore a backup in my S4's Safestrap, I was unsure about thoroughness & reliability. However, since it's TWRP based and (I believe) runs outside of system, I felt comfortable to proceed... with caution.
Not sure if I went about it the right way or how much of a "No brainer" the process is to others, but (when I find the time) I'll post what I did in case someone else is looking for the same results.
I welcome all observations, corrections, criticism.
Related
If I break forum etiquette in some way please excuse the lapse - this is my first post to any forum. Honestly, it's a bit intimidating but I'm more than a little desperate right now. Near panic would be a better description of my state.
My Droid Incredible is stuck in a continuous boot loop. 24-48 hours after downloading a sleep sound generating app (if this is relevant), I was trying to use a different app and a pop-up stated "internal error" and would not load the app. I tried another and same result. I tried to kill all running apps with advanced app killer and same result. I turned off the phone thinking that it would correct when turning it back on but no luck. Now it just power cycles in a continuous boot loop. There has been no solution through tech support or a store visit. I don't care about the phone. At this point I would like to strap it to a steak and throw it in a lion cage. I do care about the data its holding - none of which is backed up in any way. There is no sd card and no back-up in my gmail account. I need to try and rescue the following data: voice memos from the HTC app, notes from the 3bannana (catch notes) app, photos, videos, apps, bookmarks from the dolphin HD browser and the Android browser, pdf downloads, text messages, call log settings, etc.
I have tried to boot the phone with a sd card installed. I have tried to view the data from a Celebrite machine at the Verizon store - it sees the drive but not the data. I tried to get into a "safe mode" menu by depressing down volume+center click+menu. Nothing has worked.
Is there any desktop software (or any other solution) that would enable me to restore (rescue) the data from the phone while it is in this state?
If there isn't, please just make something up so I can continue for a while in a delusional state of hope and get over this gradually.
Thank you for your wisdom and mercy.
Kandinsky1 said:
If I break forum etiquette in some way please excuse the lapse - this is my first post to any forum. Honestly, it's a bit intimidating but I'm more than a little desperate right now. Near panic would be a better description of my state.
My Droid Incredible is stuck in a continuous boot loop. 24-48 hours after downloading a sleep sound generating app (if this is relevant), I was trying to use a different app and a pop-up stated "internal error" and would not load the app. I tried another and same result. I tried to kill all running apps with advanced app killer and same result. I turned off the phone thinking that it would correct when turning it back on but no luck. Now it just power cycles in a continuous boot loop. There has been no solution through tech support or a store visit. I don't care about the phone. At this point I would like to strap it to a steak and throw it in a lion cage. I do care about the data its holding - none of which is backed up in any way. There is no sd card and no back-up in my gmail account. I need to try and rescue the following data: voice memos from the HTC app, notes from the 3bannana (catch notes) app, photos, videos, apps, bookmarks from the dolphin HD browser and the Android browser, pdf downloads, text messages, call log settings, etc.
I have tried to boot the phone with a sd card installed. I have tried to view the data from a Celebrite machine at the Verizon store - it sees the drive but not the data. I tried to get into a "safe mode" menu by depressing down volume+center click+menu. Nothing has worked.
Is there any desktop software (or any other solution) that would enable me to restore (rescue) the data from the phone while it is in this state?
If there isn't, please just make something up so I can continue for a while in a delusional state of hope and get over this gradually.
Thank you for your wisdom and mercy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a custom recovery image and the partitions aren't corrupt you should be able to recover everything with adb.
If you don't have a custom recovery then it might be impossible to recover anything.
Have you rooted the phone and installed a custom recovery?
With respect to backups - GMail for example is stored in the cloud - so the data on your phone is just a clone - you won't loose your mail - other apps I don't know, you'll have to check each.
If you can't get stable adb access you will need to research a factory reset for your phone which should fix it (but will wipe your data).
djmcnz said:
If you have a custom recovery image and the partitions aren't corrupt you should be able to recover everything with adb.
If you don't have a custom recovery then it might be impossible to recover anything.
Have you rooted the phone and installed a custom recovery?
With respect to backups - GMail for example is stored in the cloud - so the data on your phone is just a clone - you won't loose your mail - other apps I don't know, you'll have to check each.
If you can't get stable adb access you will need to research a factory reset for your phone which should fix it (but will wipe your data).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I have not rooted my droid, have no custom recovery image and don't even know what adb is. As you can tell, I am a complete novice - but a novice in serious trouble if I can't recover the data. When you say stable adb access, what do you mean?
I was hoping to find some type of desktop recovery software that may be able to recognize the drive on the phone and then view and copy the data. Is it possible that this might exist. By the way is there a more appropriate sub-forum to place this post?
Thanks for your help,
Caleb
Kandinsky1 said:
Unfortunately, I have not rooted my droid, have no custom recovery image and don't even know what adb is. As you can tell, I am a complete novice - but a novice in serious trouble if I can't recover the data. When you say stable adb access, what do you mean?
I was hoping to find some type of desktop recovery software that may be able to recognize the drive on the phone and then view and copy the data. Is it possible that this might exist. By the way is there a more appropriate sub-forum to place this post?
Thanks for your help,
Caleb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol ADB is the Android Debugging Bridge - in layman's term, it's a way to gain terminal access to your phone and do several other things with your phone. Mostly for debugging, but can be used for these purposes if you're rooted/installed a custom recovery.
That said, it would be at this point in time, virtually impossible to save your data that hasn't been backed up. Even if you had root, this might have been a bit more accomplishable (though usually a custom recovery never hurt ). If you're REALLY desperate, there might still be a way, though the chances of it working and providing good results is a mixed bag of results.
I'm assuming that if you didn't have an SD card in there in the first place that it has some built-in memory, right? Well, If not, then Catch notes would not have worked as it depends on an SD card to hold backups and (if i believe correctly) notes. Also, I'm assuming that you had some accounts set up on your phone (HTC/Google). If not, then I don't know how you've gone this long without it, but I'm almost positive you did have at least those two. In that case, the voice memos might be saved as well as the call log settings. Contacts might also be synced, so its more of the physical stuff we need to worry (texts/pdfs/bookmarks/pictures/videos)
Now, there are ways to recover using a computer. It all requires that you get your phone to work again (don't throw it to the lions yet!) So, we'll need to try and unbrick it. Follow the instructions here to try and get your phone back into factory state. It's true this will delete all your data, but as you are now, you have even less of a chance of recovering it.
From here, you're going to just skip past the setups and everything. After that, you're going to mount the phone as a disk drive. Now, this is where things can either go really good or really bad for you.
Get a recovery software for Windows, Linux, or Mac here. I honestly prefer Recuva as it has worked well for me in the past and this other program I had to pay for (can't remember the name. Search google and you might find it ;P), but Recuva should serve these purposes well.
The reason why these things work very inconsistently is that when you delete stuff in your phone/computer, they don't actually get "deleted". Rather, they are flagged as "not needed" and is left there until the phone/computer needs more space. It'll search out any flags, then overwrite them. In our case, that will work for and against us. Since we have to rewrite about 1 GB of data to reinstall the system (or was it +- 500 MBs?) we'll have to assume that about that much will be lost to us. That's why usually videos are unrecoverable. They are large and usually take up the most space, so they will be hard to recover if anything.
However, this works out for us as we can recover things like texts, contacts, your color note files, bookmarks, pictures, and whatever else you can dream of with a very high success rate. This is because they are small enough and if they don't get touched, you can probably get them in their original form. However, if parts of it is overwritten (i.e. texts, video) , you'll know cause the texts will have funky characters that dont make sense and the video wont load. Use this to your advantage and recover only small things first. Rule of thumb: if its small and seen by the software, most likely untouched. Grab these first.
I apologize for this really really long post. I just wanted to explain every part to you so you can understand the thinking behind why I'm asking you to do something as delete your precious data. However, like I stated earlier, there is almost 100% chance you won't get everything back and you could still possibly lose all your data should the software not see it. However, I feel this is much better than not having any chance at all and just staring at your phone waiting for it to grow brains and spit out the data in a conveniently-hidden SD card. So, I hope this works for you and if things go well, let me know! =]
~jojojohnson7410
In case hard reset didn't work...
You can follow the following section by clicking here:
How to revert to factory (stock, S-ON, no root):
Get S-ON by flashing THIS FILE (218.5kb) via recovery the same way you would flash a ROM. If you're not on the stock radio, you'll first need to FLASH THE STOCK RADIO. If you don't know how to do this, then you've never flashed off the stock radio, so you're good.
Revert your phone back to the stock, unrooted ROM. You have two options.
Option 1: Download HTC Sync and run the RUU. You can download the RUU HERE (180MB).
Option 2: Download THIS FILE (172.5MB) and place it on the root of your SD card. Reboot your phone into HBOOT (Bootloader, NOT RECOVERY!!!). Once the bootloader checks the image, it will ask you if you want to update. Select Yes and let the update run. After the phone reboots, you will have a stock, factory Droid Incredible running the November update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's all the way at the top. Do this only if the hard reset didn't work. If you need help using this or encounter any problems, let me know =] (oh, PM me cause sometimes I forget to check >.>)
~jojojohnson7410
The Short Version: Screen's trashed, bootloader is unlocked, can I install Clockwork Recovery without losing the data on the phone right now? And can someone at least step me through the Clockwork Recovery menu, as my SAMOLED display is actually damaged (I've done the software hacking before)? If I can't do the CWR thing, can I at least force the phone into USB boot mode so I can pull the backups I do have in USB Storage before Samsung nukes the phone?
The Long Version:
Title says it all. I know there are other "help me back up my phone with a busted screen" threads, but the ones I've seen so far all reference camera buttons and such. There's some data on the "local" storage I'd like to try and recover, if at all possible, specifically data in a time clock app, a car maintenance log app, and save games would be a nice little bonus. The apps have native back-up features, but they aren't automatic, and I can't trigger them with the broken screen.
Here's the kicker: I rooted once and installed CM7, CWR, and the rest of the usual toys, right before ICS came out. Then once ICS came out, I ran into all sorts of trouble with the manual upgrade, and basically undid everything... almost. I know the bootloader is still unlocked, and I'm pretty sure I removed Clockwork Recovery (like a damn fool). Is it possible to reinstall CWR without nuking the main storage? And, of course, since my screen is totally trashed, is it possible for someone to help me navigate the menus?
I'm pretty confident in actually installing CWR and removing it and relocking the bootloader. Tons of guides out there, and I've done it once before, I just need to know if I can do this without losing my data. If I can't, is there some way to force the phone into USB Storage Mode so I can at least recover the data on the phone that is auto-backed-up (or backed up previously)?
Thank you for anything you can do to help me out here!
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
Don't worry, it's a security question alright.
I live in Eastern Europe, which is on the far side of the Samsung support network and I have samsung galaxy s3 phone (GT-9300 i guess). My repair options look a little bit bleak. I must either ship it back to France, from where it is bought, or I must seek help of non-licensed technicians. Thank God, there are quite a lot around here and for problems like this they do wonders.
I am worried though that the technicians may try to meddle with the software of my phone and do something nasty with it while the phone is in their possession. I use the phone quite a lot to access various servers trough ssh and the servers contain semi-sensitive information about customers, phones, the equivalents of social security numbers in my country and etc. Of course I will delete my present information, but how about the future. If someone has hacked versions of the firmware, it will be a child game to get the passwords for my servers.
So I need to secure the software of my phone somehow and I'm not sure of my options, so I'm asking for advice which is better. I have experience with Linux, but about Android I'm a quite noob. I had my Amazon FireHD Tablet rooted and installed with CyanogenMOD, so I know a little bit about ROM images. The phone itself is unrooted with original software and is not locked to a carrier.
Should I:
1. Try to back up my entire ROM image?
There are various questions here. It looks that I cannot download standalone original ROM image directly from Samsung so I must back up mine. But in the bootloader (which opens with volume up/down + home + power) it seems that there are no options for backing up rom image, only for restoring trough ADB of SD card. Should I try to root, install alternative bootloader and then back up everything.
There is one very important sub-question here: Will the phone signal me somehow If someone replaces the original bootloader with say, non-signed one? What If someone changes the bootloader as well as the system image?
2. Should I try to ecrypt my phone.
I cannot get easily information about what exactly is encrypted. Pretty sure that the bootloader itself cannot be encrypted anyway. How about the system image. Is it encrypted ?
I'll be thanful for any help about these two ideas as well as any others?
If you are paying to have the repair done by an entity other than Samsung then you have a great option available. Just out of curiousity, what version of android are you running? If I were in your shoes, I would root the phone and install a custom recovery (either TWRP or Philz). This will allow you to take a complete nandroid backup of the phone to the external SD Card. Confirm the nandroid backup has been saved to the SD Card then remove the card from the phone and store it somewhere safe. Then perform a factory reset to completely wipe the phone and have your phone sent out to be fixed. When you get your phone back, insert the SD Card and restore from the backup. It will be just as you left it and the possibility that anyone has been able to access or tamper with your phone is almost nil... Apart from possibly large national security agencies whom are known for having catalogs of common electronic items that have been compromised in various ways.
I can't speak for your exact phone, but I am quite familiar with encryption as well as the US-model Galaxy S3's. Unfortunately Samsung is known for running their own encryption schemes with are different and most often weaker than the stock. Custom ROMs with generally have an implementation based on AOSP sources. A 4 digit PIN or common passphrase can be easily broken with either, but a sturdy encryption passphrase will almost certainly provide sufficient protection.
Without knowing the specifics of your phone and whatever TouchWiz it's running, I can say this much. If you enable encryption on your phone, it will encrypt /data (application data) at a very minimum. This will almost definitely not include /system. It will probably not include the external SD card or any of the actual applications (the .apk files). The encryption would keep your data secure at rest, but it wouldn't prevent a motivated attacker from installing a hidden malicious application in the system.
You are correct in that the bootloader cannot be encrypted.
84598432951
fadedout said:
If you are paying to have the repair done by an entity other than Samsung then you have a great option available. Just out of curiousity, what version of android are you running? If I were in your shoes, I would root the phone and install a custom recovery (either TWRP or Philz). This will allow you to take a complete nandroid backup of the phone to the external SD Card. Confirm the nandroid backup has been saved to the SD Card then remove the card from the phone and store it somewhere safe. Then perform a factory reset to completely wipe the phone and have your phone sent out to be fixed. When you get your phone back, insert the SD Card and restore from the backup. It will be just as you left it and the possibility that anyone has been able to access or tamper with your phone is almost nil... Apart from possibly large national security agencies whom are known for having catalogs of common electronic items that have been compromised in various ways.
I can't speak for your exact phone, but I am quite familiar with encryption as well as the US-model Galaxy S3's. Unfortunately Samsung is known for running their own encryption schemes with are different and most often weaker than the stock. Custom ROMs with generally have an implementation based on AOSP sources. A 4 digit PIN or common passphrase can be easily broken with either, but a sturdy encryption passphrase will almost certainly provide sufficient protection.
Without knowing the specifics of your phone and whatever TouchWiz it's running, I can say this much. If you enable encryption on your phone, it will encrypt /data (application data) at a very minimum. This will almost definitely not include /system. It will probably not include the external SD card or any of the actual applications (the .apk files). The encryption would keep your data secure at rest, but it wouldn't prevent a motivated attacker from installing a hidden malicious application in the system.
You are correct in that the bootloader cannot be encrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You for the informative answer!
I had to do this once and what I did was:
- Root phone (which I always wanted to do)
- Perform a full backup to SD card
- Remove SD card and perform a factory reset of the phone
Then off to repairs.
Once back, I did again a factory reset (just in case) and then restore the lot
Seems a lot to do, but I have some sensitive data on it and didn't want to risk it too much. Besides during the restore I took the opportunity to upgrade to 4.3 (at the time)
glass
why dnt you buy a chinese glass and change it yourself its so easy and cheap, around 10 euros or so? i did the same for my old phone
Hey everyone, I've had my eye since release and just haven't rooted it and now I took the update to 5.0.1 and my Edge is all messed up. I click on a notification such as a file I downloaded and it takes about 5 minutes before it opens. Our text messages and any other messages, i.e. Facebook, don't come through for about 30min. Amongst many other issues.
My question is, can I root with cf-autoroot even with the fact that I did the update? I've got a Sprint edge. I'd like to try and use titanium to backup and then do a clean wipe and start fresh. I think it was a bad upgrade.
Hopefully someone knows the answer.
Sent from my SM-N915P using XDA Free mobile app
squick said:
Hey everyone, I've had my eye since release and just haven't rooted it and now I took the update to 5.0.1 and my Edge is all messed up. I click on a notification such as a file I downloaded and it takes about 5 minutes before it opens. Our text messages and any other messages, i.e. Facebook, don't come through for about 30min. Amongst many other issues.
My question is, can I root with cf-autoroot even with the fact that I did the update? I've got a Sprint edge. I'd like to try and use titanium to backup and then do a clean wipe and start fresh. I think it was a bad upgrade.
Hopefully someone knows the answer.
Sent from my SM-N915P using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you not use Google/Samsung backup? I'm just saying that you could do a clean wipe and the Google/Samsung backup would restore you back to whatever you have set up now?
I'm not opposed to you rooting, I do it as well but haven't yet rooted the replacement phone I just got because of a broken screen.
It was interesting that when I activated this phone that ALL of EVERYTHING I had on the previous phone (which I had Nandroid BU, TI backup, and directory BU to my PC) was automatically reinstalled on the replacement phone.
A bit of setup of NOVA Launcher and a few other minor things and I was back up and running (just without root). It DID take quite a while for the many many many apps I have to reinstall through the backup, but it was automatic.
Just wanted to give you an alternative. In fact, I'd probably want to get a good install BEFORE I rooted. I don't know (think) that rooting and resetting will necessarily fix a bad install.
beejmeister said:
Do you not use Google/Samsung backup? I'm just saying that you could do a clean wipe and the Google/Samsung backup would restore you back to whatever you have set up now?
I'm not opposed to you rooting, I do it as well but haven't yet rooted the replacement phone I just got because of a broken screen.
It was interesting that when I activated this phone that ALL of EVERYTHING I had on the previous phone (which I had Nandroid BU, TI backup, and directory BU to my PC) was automatically reinstalled on the replacement phone.
A bit of setup of NOVA Launcher and a few other minor things and I was back up and running (just without root). It DID take quite a while for the many many many apps I have to reinstall through the backup, but it was automatic.
Just wanted to give you an alternative. In fact, I'd probably want to get a good install BEFORE I rooted. I don't know (think) that rooting and resetting will necessarily fix a bad install.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the idea. Honestly, I've never noticed the google backup actually work. Any time I've gotten a new phone, I've usually gone off a TB backup so it's hard to trust that it's going to work. I had also wondered if I could root, then do the full wipe on cache and all and then flash a rom of choice.
I've just been away from xda for a while and not totally up on what's going on lately, what's able to be done, if there's any particulars to keep an eye out for, etc...
All I know is I'm going though a few batteries a day, notifications come at least 30 minutes late on all apps, and the phone is about to take a swim in the pool.
I've been transferring all files off the device and sd to my laptop just to be safe but I'm having some issues with that as well, lol. errors pop up about file names too long and crap or it disconnects in the middle of transferring. I'm having to use a usb drive adapter to put them on a drive first and then onto the pc. Slow going.
Thanks again
Dont know about sprint, but what you are getting is very unusual at least for unlocked. Might have no option but a fresh stock flash.
Yea, I actually 5 seconds from clicking the button. Just finished getting everything backed up that I think I could. I'd like to root after the restore. Does anyone out there know if you can root the Sprint Edge on 5.0.1 using cf?
Sent from my SM-N915P using XDA Free mobile app