Database Info

Backing up CWM6 backups

I have CWM 6.0.1.0 as my recovery and I have a good number of backups saved on my sdcard spanning a number of different roms (mostly cm10 official nightlies). I understand that the newer CWM backs up roms using a different method than before. When I look in my Clockworkmod directory on the sdcard, I see a BLOBS folder and a BACKUP folder. The latter contains the backups, but they are very small in size. So do I understand correctly that the bulk of the backup information is in the BLOBS folder?
Assuming that's true, how do we safely:
1) Delete individual backup? If I delete a backup from the BACKUP folder, how will it know what to delete from the BLOBS folder? Do we have to actually delete the backup from within recovery in order for it to delete the proper BLOBS info? Or can I delete an individual backup from the BACKUP folder from Root Explorer? If I do that, won't the BLOBS folder continue to grow in size with outdated information?
2) Back up the CWM backups to my PC? I assume I have to back up the entire BLOBS folder to my PC, right? And then I can just back up individual backups from the BACKUP folder, right? But I would need BOTH the individual backup and the entire BLOBS folder back on my phone to restore a backup, right? If so, then I revert back to question 1 and ask how to I pare down the BLOBS folder without messing up individual backups?
Thanks!

You can delete backups from Rom Manager or if using the newest version of cwm you can delete it from recovery. As far as backing it up. I just deleted all but the one(s) wanted and copy the cwm folder to my computer. Hope that helps.

ren274u said:
You can delete backups from Rom Manager or if using the newest version of cwm you can delete it from recovery. As far as backing it up. I just deleted all but the one(s) wanted and copy the cwm folder to my computer. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So we have to delete old backups using Rom Manger or from within Recovery? I delete some of them from Root Explorer, so does that mean the Blogs info will still retain old data. Or will it know to clear that space simply because the old backup files are missing?

Travisimo said:
So we have to delete old backups using Rom Manger or from within Recovery? I delete some of them from Root Explorer, so does that mean the Blogs info will still retain old data. Or will it know to clear that space simply because the old backup files are missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how the blog info works. I just assumed if you delete from cwm it knows whats the data incorporated with the specific backup and it deletes it with it.

Wow, I tried copying the Clockworkmod folder to my PC via USB and it took over an hour just to index and then it just stopped and failed. I imagine because there are so many individual files in the Blobs folder that it causes Windows indexing to crash. I deleted all the old backups I didn't need, did the free up space thing in CWM and it's still impossible to copy to my PC. I have 3 backups left (from different roms), so I supposed the Blobs folder is going to be pretty large.
So I can see how this backup method works out good on the phone itself because it makes backups easier and faster. But trying to back them up to PC is ridiculous. The old way where I could just copy over an individual backup was much easier.
Isn't there a better way? Someone suggested zipping the Blobs folder up on the device first and then copying to PC, but zipping the Blobs folder is taking forever as well...

[Q] a few Noob questions regarding TWRP NANDroid backups

Hello, I have a few questions regarding the TWRP recovery particularly the NANDroid backups, please bear with me as I am new to this. I have made a few backups using twrp but I want to put them onto my pc in order to save space however when I plug my phone into my pc I don’t see the TWRP folder unless I boot into recovery and then plug it in. Is this how it is supposed to be?
I wanted to test out restoring a backup that I had saved onto my pc onto my device. To test this out I created a backup through TWRP booted into recovery plugged in my device into my computer copied the backup file located in the TWRP folder and then deleted it from my device. Next I wanted to copy the backup that I just put on my pc back onto my phone and then eventually restore it through TWRP. However I only get as far as copying it from my device onto my pc. When I try to copy it back into the TWRP folder on my device I get an error saying “cannot copy data.ext4.win000 its file size is larger than the device limit” The backup is 4.83gb and I have 10.7gb free. Does anyone know why this is happening?
Last question, seeing as a NanDroid backup is basically an image of your whole device, let’s say I am selling my device and I don’t want the buyer to have any way of accessing any of my data. Would the deletion of my backups, factory reset and an advanced wipe where I select all the partitions to be wiped be enough?
Thank you in advance for your help!

1 - no. You're on lollipop i presume. Read my /sdcard thread in general
2 - sounds like its being mounted as FAT with 4GB file limit. Try web push method
3 - not really. You'd be best overwriting the data partition with files first.

Where is mmssms.db located in a TWRP backup of Nougat>

I am trying to extract the file mmssms.db from several nandroid (TWRP) backups of Nougat. I know that in Nougat this file was moved to "/data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases". I can browse to this file on my phone but if I browse through the contents of the data partition backup from the nandroid backup files (data.ext4.win00X) the path "/data/user_de/" does not exist. Can anyone tell me where this file can be found in a TWRP backup archive? Otherwise I will have to completely restore these backups one by one to pull each iteration of the file off the phone.

I think that TWRP doesn't backup this folder for the simple raison that Nougat is quite new.
Maybe it backups only a list of folders in /data (but I can't confirm it)
I got just ****ed right now, me too.

TWRP backup including internal storage

We all know, at least I hope so, that if you perform a backup in TWRP the internal storage data (photos, documents, etc.) is not included in the backup.
https://twrp.me/faq/backupexclusions.html
Of course, you can always manually backup the internal storage. But it is possible to include the internal storage data in a TWRP backup by temporarily renaming the media folder inside the root folder data.
A TWRP backup includes the TWRP folder for it is part of the internal storage. Therefore it will also backup all the large files which are present. It is therefore more convenient to keep the TWRP folder as small as possible, but it is up to you.
1. Go into TWRP recovery.
2. The path is button advanced button file management within the data folder you will find the media folder. Rename the media folder
temporarily to e.g. ABC.
3. Perform a new backup in TWRP and give it a new name. Don't leave TWRP but enter file management again.
4. You will find a new media folder. This is because TWRP creates this media folder, it includes your new backup.
5. Your follow-up actions will be to rename the new media folder into e.g. DEF and rename the temporary folder ABC (which is the original media folder)
back to media.
6. Restart your system and now you find a TWRP backup including internal storage in the DEF folder. Move this backup to the TWRP folder and delete
the DEF folder.
Thats it.
Do not forget when you perform a recovery with this backup to repeat step 6.

update:
20180321-111816
OK I found another post, using same method but used examples.
Indeed they are using same method,
and I would like to thank OP and that post's OP.
both help to "include internal storage into TWRP backup".
thanks~
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/tutorial-create-internal-storage-backup-t3389172
--------------------------------------------------
Can you write in more simple english?
I really dont understand the details.
It will help with examples, with the full path instead of just "ABC" "DEF"
Thank you.

Good looking out OP. Never know when I may need this. :good:

a very good guide
you can always use

thanks for your effort! if you like you can test my solution
Universal-TWRP-Bind-Mount-Enabler.zip (do not flash!)

Thanks mart56, I am looking for this for some time and now i got right solution. it's really help me with internal storage backup.

Excellent
If backing up to external SD Card, media directory is not created, so just rename it back after the backup process. If rebooted without renaming back, then it recreates media directory.
.

I was looking for full back up solution and found this: https://www.xda-developers.com/tipatch-patches-twrp-full-data-backups/
Both options have drawbacks... I dont like wipe data option in TWRP to delete data including storage .
---------- Post added at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 PM ----------
mart56 said:
We all know, at least I hope so, that if you perform a backup in TWRP the internal storage data (photos, documents, etc.) is not included in the backup.
https://twrp.me/faq/backupexclusions.html
Of course, you can always manually backup the internal storage. But it is possible to include the internal storage data in a TWRP backup by temporarily renaming the media folder inside the root folder data.
A TWRP backup includes the TWRP folder for it is part of the internal storage. Therefore it will also backup all the large files which are present. It is therefore more convenient to keep the TWRP folder as small as possible, but it is up to you.
1. Go into TWRP recovery.
2. The path is button advanced button file management within the data folder you will find the media folder. Rename the media folder
temporarily to e.g. ABC.
3. Perform a new backup in TWRP and give it a new name. Don't leave TWRP but enter file management again.
4. You will find a new media folder. This is because TWRP creates this media folder, it includes your new backup.
5. Your follow-up actions will be to rename the new media folder into e.g. DEF and rename the temporary folder ABC (which is the original media folder)
back to media.
6. Restart your system and now you find a TWRP backup including internal storage in the DEF folder. Move this backup to the TWRP folder and delete
the DEF folder.
Thats it.
Do not forget when you perform a recovery with this backup to repeat step 6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I understand our media should be back up in ABC. So during recovery after "format data" or "wipe including internal storage" it will restore our media in ABC folder, do we need to rename it back to media using TWRP to complete recovery?
My understanding is that internal storage will stay in ABC, and not be visible when boot in System(not doing step 5). In system we will have the newly created media empty (because we can not do step 6 DEF folder is actual internal storage and will not be included in back up).
So do you mean that we need to do step (5) after recovery? Not step (6)?

useless
whenever i tried to take a backup,the same error pops up,even after following ur instructions.so ur post is useless for me.

Guys, does anybody know, why twrp doesn't see an option data including storage (large sd needed) while I am trying to restore it? It definitely is present in the backup

I followed this guide and the backup size is 28591MB (boot, data, system). However, the internal memory of my S4mini is only 8GB. How can the /data/media folder be bigger than the internal memory? It is not stored on the external sd card is it?
UPDATE: I deleted the /data/media/0/DCIM/.thumbnail folder and now the backup is only 4950MB

V helpful and useful tip Thanks

Full Backup using the TWRP Backup Tool program

Good afternoon,
My question is as follows,
1. The Backup Tool program creates a unique file when it generates the complete backup by the computer, different from the one created by TWRP, if it only needs to restore a single item has?
Note: I use the Backup Tool to be able to back up directly to the PC because I do not have enough memory card to fit the DATA folder.
2. With the complete backup, I read in some topics in the forum, that do not go type information, photos, downloads, etc. Is this right? If so, why in full backup is this information missing?
Thank you.

costafabiof said:
Good afternoon,
My question is as follows,
1. The Backup Tool program creates a unique file when it generates the complete backup by the computer, different from the one created by TWRP, if it only needs to restore a single item has?
Note: I use the Backup Tool to be able to back up directly to the PC because I do not have enough memory card to fit the DATA folder.
2. With the complete backup, I read in some topics in the forum, that do not go type information, photos, downloads, etc. Is this right? If so, why in full backup is this information missing?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use twrp to pc and copy your internal storage off. Just drag and drop the folders you want from internal to your pc. No need to do a back up of it

godkingofcanada said:
You can use twrp to pc and copy your internal storage off. Just drag and drop the folders you want from internal to your pc. No need to do a back up of it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good afternoon,
Are you telling me that when I connect the phone to the PC via TWRP and all the folders appear, if I copy them, is it the same as doing a full backup by TWRP?
Because if so, what caught my attention is that, folders total 700 mb and backup 6 gigs.

No what he's saying is that TWRP only backs up the system content. So your ROM, apps, app settings, customisation etc is all saved in the TWRP backup.
But it doesn't save "loose" user files, so things like photos, downloads, etc saved to your SD or internal storage aren't included in the TWRP backup.
So for a complete backup, you want a TWRP backup + copy the photos, downloads, etc folders via PC onto your desktop.
Copying the folders is NOT going to be equivalent to a TWP backup, as you don't see any system/firmware files in PC.

What to use to Backup Complete phone Firmware, pictures and Everything on the phone??? So if it crashes you caab restore phone back to like it was before Crash? Thanks