before installing a custom rom on a tf700, the instructions always say to do a "full wipe" without any explanation of what that is. Is it the same thing as a "hard" reset? a "factory" reset? A complete and accurate description of what it is and how it is done on a tf700 would be most appreciated.
I've tried searching for such a description but it seems that xda does not search in the current forum but always over the entire site. then i get hundreds of irrelevant results.
I just found this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/tra.../guide-convert-data-to-f2fs-twrp-2-8-t3073471 where berndblb explains it. Thank you, berndblb!
Dirty flash: Flashing the new version of a rom after just wiping cache and Dalvik. Only recommended for minor updates within the same rom
Clean install=full wipe=factory reset in TWRP: Wipe /data in addition to cache and Dalvik which will erase all user installed apps and settings, but no personal data stored in Internal Storage
For major version updates like KitKat > Marshmallow > Nougat you need to do a super clean install, meaning you have to format /data, which will erase the entire data partition including Internal Storage and force you to reflash the rom even if you reinstall the same one. On this tablet with its terrible IO performance a full format and fresh installation is beneficial every 3 to 6 months depending on how much you use the tablet.
Edit: Shoot! did not see your edit! I thought I had written that up somewhere already
berndblb said:
Dirty flash: Flashing the new version of a rom after just wiping cache and Dalvik. Only recommended for minor updates within the same rom
Clean install=full wipe=factory reset in TWRP: Wipe /data in addition to cache and Dalvik which will erase all user installed apps and settings, but no personal data stored in Internal Storage
For major version updates like KitKat > Marshmallow > Nougat you need to do a super clean install, meaning you have to format /data, which will erase the entire data partition including Internal Storage and force you to reflash the rom even if you reinstall the same one. On this tablet with its terrible IO performance a full format and fresh installation is beneficial every 3 to 6 months depending on how much you use the tablet.
Edit: Shoot! did not see your edit! I thought I had written that up somewhere already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much, Berndblb! I am going to do a super clean install for the very reason you state: my tablet is so slow as to be nearly useless. I have never understood (1) How a company that makes such excellent products otherwise could sell such a lousy pos tablet - perhaps the slowest android device ever, and (2) How did the tablet get such excellent reviews when it first was introduced? I can't imagine a reviewer waiting 15 minutes for the tablet to boot and 5 minutes for an app to respond to a simple user input, like a single tap on a virtual button ... I mean how could any reviewer say that the tf700 was any good at all? But the reviews were great and I bought it.
lamoid said:
Thank you very much, Berndblb! I am going to do a super clean install for the very reason you state: my tablet is so slow as to be nearly useless. I have never understood (1) How a company that makes such excellent products otherwise could sell such a lousy pos tablet - perhaps the slowest android device ever, and (2) How did the tablet get such excellent reviews when it first was introduced? I can't imagine a reviewer waiting 15 minutes for the tablet to boot and 5 minutes for an app to respond to a simple user input, like a single tap on a virtual button ... I mean how could any reviewer say that the tf700 was any good at all? But the reviews were great and I bought it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I don't think the reviewers spend days and weeks with it and out of the box it actually was pretty good. It's only when you set it up for real life use with all kinds of apps that want updating, widgets on the home screen etc etc. And the IO problem gets worse the more blocks are in use on the emmc that's why it helps so much to convert /data to f2fs and even with that the occasional full format rejuvenates this tablet so much. I hardly see any performance increase from a full format on other Android devices. The TF700 is special
But you'll be surprised how good it can run when used within it's limits. I just set one up as a pure media/music/Alexa-ish device (no gapps, no social media, no email) running Nougatella and it is pretty fast. Fast enough that I don't immediately grab a different device when I need to get something done.... That'll extend it's usefulness another year at least.
Related
Okay. I spent about 6 hours working on this and frankly, as much as i love working on stuff like this, i am simply tired (more from lack of sleep, but w/e).
I previously had a rooted phone (JF 1.43 w/ apps2sd by LucidRem). All my apps went to the sd just fine and everything was stable.
then i decided to update to 1.5 via
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=512762
okay..that went to hell. i was perfectly fine on wiping my phone as stated in the steps.
things that happened:
- phone was freaking out since i have dxtop and several apps that wanted to start @ boot (twidroid, Dark Keys, etc)
- most apps did not work (i expected this and i was fine with that)
- could not start most any other app (met with ALOT of force close errors)
Okay. i just uninstalled a bunch of apps and reinstalled them via the marketplace. that's fine. rebooted. and now...i'm stuck @ the android bootloop. fantastic.
okay. let me try to wipe again and install the original JF 1.5 via
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=511186
since apparently it supports apps2sd inherently. worked for a while and still kind of does right now. but most of my apps will still not work nor show up. back to unstalling (btw i do this at the settings menu always) and reinstalling from the marketplace to no avail.
so, my question is....
which is the best build to use so i can get apps2sd (i already have a partitioned sd card class 6 and am planning to wipe the ext partition in linux) and a nice stable OS?
i was thinking of the original JF1.5 with Marcus' apps2sd step, but if an easier (and hopefully better way) is out there, i would love to be shown to it.
oh btw, can i actually do any of this from a clean phone? (no apps basically brand new)
sorry for the txt rant.
The dudes build has this setup automatically, just from personal experience and a few peoples issues with it as well, it is best to re-format your ext2 partition to avoid any issues. That build is stable for me, not fact just my opinion. I haven't had any issues besides going to the new apps to sd way, which is why I recommend the re-formatting of ext2
@BSDADON thanks for the quick reply i was actually thinking of theDUde's build as well.
though should i format my Sd card as well? or should i just leave it and just format the ext2 only?
you just need to fsck or reformat that ext2 partition. (formating the whole card might wipe out all partitions or result in some wired state.)
just wondering if it somehow fix the ****ty storage Asus on this tablet. Thanks!
Try CROMIX ROM... and your tablet will fly again
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Like the user said above get cromi x. I was honestly really hesitant about unlocking and rooting since my tablet warranty etc... But the risk is 100% worth the reward. Unlocked and rooted last week and have been flying ever since. The process was very easy too!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
pierrekid said:
Like the user said above get cromi x. I was honestly really hesitant about unlocking and rooting since my tablet warranty etc... But the risk is 100% worth the reward. Unlocked and rooted last week and have been flying ever since. The process was very easy too!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree : go cromi-x for a better experience with your infinity
I agree as well. CROMI-X is the only way to go.
Thanks for the kudos guys! :good:
I find lagfix very good t speeding the tab up again. It performs a trim on the partitions which in essence defrags them. You get the same effect by doing a full wipe and reinstalling everything so lagfix takes away that pain.
sbdags said:
I find lagfix very good t speeding the tab up again. It performs a trim on the partitions which in essence defrags them. You get the same effect by doing a full wipe and reinstalling everything so lagfix takes away that pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, fstrim is not similar to defrag - it's actually something entirely different and even works on a different layer. And full wipe and reinstalling does not replace trimming (it does replace defrag though) - in fact, it makes the situation even worse.
Background: Flash storage needs to be erased before it can be rewritten because the write operation can only change bits in one direction. Erasing takes long and works only in big blocks (in the order of 8 MB). Normal filesystems like ext4, exFAT or NTFS don't know anything about flash storage - they were created for magnetic media where you can simply overwrite what you want to change, and leave around things you don't need until you overwrite them with new data (btw, that's the reason why undelete tools work).
So where is the magic that erases blocks when needed? In the Flash Translation Layer inside the eMMC. This tries to hide the peculiarities of flash memory from the outside world, so the filesystem can happily overwrite a 512 byte block and the FTL pretends everything works as on magnetic media.
Well, almost. Since overwriting on flash is not physically possible, what really happens is that the FTL finds some empty block, copies the remaining part of the original flash block merged with the new changed sector to the new block, and updates some management information to be able to find the data again later. This is why random writes are so painfully slow - small writes become big writes internally.
But it can get even worse - what if there are no empty blocks left? Remember that the filesystem simply leaves unused blocks as they are and overwrites them when needed. So even if you have just formatted your filesystem and you have 60 GB free space, the FTL inside the eMMC doesn't know - it just sees lots of blocks that have some data written to them (from before formatting), so it must consider them important. If no free blocks are available when writing data, some block needs to be erased (slow!) and rewritten completely. This is what we want to avoid with trimming.
So what fstrim does is it tells the eMMC "these blocks are free, you can forget what's inside and pre-erase them". So future writes are faster until the pre-erased blocks are used up again.
This also means that fstrim will not magically make anything faster as long as free erased blocks are available. If you have 10 GB free and you run fstrim once, running it again before 10 GB of data have been written to flash memory will not improve performance.
_that said:
No, fstrim is not similar to defrag - it's actually something entirely different and even works on a different layer. And full wipe and reinstalling does not replace trimming (it does replace defrag though) - in fact, it makes the situation even worse.
Background: Flash storage needs to be erased before it can be rewritten because the write operation can only change bits in one direction. Erasing takes long and works only in big blocks (in the order of 8 MB). Normal filesystems like ext4, exFAT or NTFS don't know anything about flash storage - they were created for magnetic media where you can simply overwrite what you want to change, and leave around things you don't need until you overwrite them with new data (btw, that's the reason why undelete tools work).
So where is the magic that erases blocks when needed? In the Flash Translation Layer inside the eMMC. This tries to hide the peculiarities of flash memory from the outside world, so the filesystem can happily overwrite a 512 byte block and the FTL pretends everything works as on magnetic media.
Well, almost. Since overwriting on flash is not physically possible, what really happens is that the FTL finds some empty block, copies the remaining part of the original flash block merged with the new changed sector to the new block, and updates some management information to be able to find the data again later. This is why random writes are so painfully slow - small writes become big writes internally.
But it can get even worse - what if there are no empty blocks left? Remember that the filesystem simply leaves unused blocks as they are and overwrites them when needed. So even if you have just formatted your filesystem and you have 60 GB free space, the FTL inside the eMMC doesn't know - it just sees lots of blocks that have some data written to them (from before formatting), so it must consider them important. If no free blocks are available when writing data, some block needs to be erased (slow!) and rewritten completely. This is what we want to avoid with trimming.
So what fstrim does is it tells the eMMC "these blocks are free, you can forget what's inside and pre-erase them". So future writes are faster until the pre-erased blocks are used up again.
This also means that fstrim will not magically make anything faster as long as free erased blocks are available. If you have 10 GB free and you run fstrim once, running it again before 10 GB of data have been written to flash memory will not improve performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@_that: I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your tutorials!
We have to find a new designation for you. "Senior Member" just doesn't cut it. How about MHWW as in: Most Honorable Wise Wizard
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
berndblb said:
@_that: I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your tutorials!
We have to find a new designation for you. "Senior Member" just doesn't cut it. How about MHWW as in: Most Honorable Wise Wizard
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 whenever you see _that's explained something you should stop whatever your doing and just read, its very hard finding this information and _that explains it very indepth and clearly!
A few weeks ago there was something on the UK news about smart phone data and how when you sell/recycle your phone most people leave accessible data on the phone after a factory reset. There was lots of trying to shock people (reading out text messages and browser history) but the solutions were barely discussed, all that was said was something like "There are programs that can overwrite your data"
So what do people do when they sell their android phone? I've seen an app in the play store called nuke my device, it basically overwrites the internal SD card then does a factory reset, I'm still not sure that would totally erase all data though?
I know all about methods for PC hard drives, but I too wouldn't mind knowing how android systems should be handled.
Yeah I know about PC Hard drives too. I have bought the nuke my device app from the play store, its cheap, I haven't used it yet!
To block undeleters it's sufficient to fill space with "generic" data then delete the file
As for removing the chip and using an external programmers, some indeed expose raw memory over the pins (MTD chips) and there's no reasonable way to wipe the hidden areas (well, assuming you want a device that still works - otherwise there's the Cobra 6 method), others have on-chip mappers (all SD cards including eMMC) which can have a TRIM command -- which however has historically been a major cause of bricks on some controller firmwares...
When I posted I was looking at some similar threads, someone made a program that deleted everything on the phone except the recovery (then you could flash another rom - I don't know if it overwrote or just deleted) I think it was for an Asus transformer tablet.
Whenever I've sold something before I have just connected it to my computer and written large files to all the available space. I don't have any sensitive data but I like to make sure everything is deleted before I sell something.
I'm surprised there's not more information/apps or whatever on this subject (wiping android) there's lots of programs for PC's to securely wipe drives. Some sites mention about encrypting the phone then wiping it, I guess that's the way to go.
My first thought was too, that it must be different from hard drives.
My initial idea would be to encrypt everything. Luckily since Honeycomb, Android supports this out of the box(but it's not hardware based) So even if data can be restored, it'd be nonsense(if the manufactorer implemented it correctly). You could choose a strong password, because you won't need to remember it anyway since you wipe the phone afterwards.
I found this article that agrees with me androidcentral.com/securely-wiping-your-android-phone-makes-it-just-fine-sell-fud
Then there is this article on lifehacker: lifehacker.com/5808280/what-should-i-do-with-my-phone-before-i-sell-it
Money quote:
Alternatively, there's the ultimate security tool if you're worried about someone pulling data from your phone: don't sell it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A little off topic: Another solution would be to just store sensitive data on a SD card and remove it before selling. Plus you could use tools like EDS(Lite) to store sensitive data in container. Sync them via a cloud service and open them on your computer with TrueCrypt.
Any updates how to do this?
Boot into recovery and dd /dev/urandom over the /data, /cache and /sdcard partitions, then from the GUI reformat them...
Not perfect but well enough to prevent someone imaging from those partitions to their PC and running an undeleter (or hex editor) on the partition images!
Thanks
Delete and disable unnecessary apps
You can do this by using the app manager in your settings, or by long-pressing apps in your drawer and dragging them to the “Uninstall” section.
Clear the cache data
The issue is that cache can build up and become pretty heavy on your smartphone’s internal storage. Try to clear it from time to time, as it can also get old. The option is available for individual apps through the app manager, or you can look for a cache cleaning application in the Google Play Store.
Clean your device storage
Got too much music, videos and other files around? Filling up your internal storage can affect performance, so try to keep your phone memory as tidy as possible. Go through all your files and decide what you will actually use and what is just taking up space for no good reason.
Get rid of widgets!
Try to limit your widget usage as much as possible. Of course, don’t sacrifice your whole experience either; after all, widgets are among of the coolest things the Android OS offers. Just keep it limited to what you will actually take advantage of.
Dump the live wallpaper
Live wallpapers sure are fun, but they affect performance and battery life. Unless you are willing to sacrifice a bit for those fancy animations, just go grab a regular image.
Keep your phone’s software up to date
Make sure your phone’s software is always on the latest version available.
Rooting?
If you really want to go nuts and unlock the door to a whole other series of possibilities, you can root your phone. Once you get total access to your device you can install cleaner ROMs that will keep your phone running smoother. It’s even possible to overclock the processor and make it work extra hard for you, hence making the phone faster.
Perform a factory data reset!
The option is in your phone’s settings under “Backup and reset”. There’s also ways to do a factory reset using the recovery menu, but the steps are different for every phone. Google is your friend!
Hi,
My question is, whats the cause for a bootloop after it optimises apps.
Basically I was doing really well modding out my XA, until I tried adoptable storage. It was not really functional using the root essential app. Atleast not for me. So I started to use apps2sd which I found to be really good, alot better at finding the second partition, more options etc.
To cut it short, after I couldn't find what was taking up so much space,
I moved a heck of alot of apps to sd card,
removed some apps, - apps removed - chinese keyboard and a photo feature. I also added some root apps in, and removed kobo books etc :s
canned it,
reset the phone in twrp,
now it bootloops.
My immediate problem is that I can't wipe cache?
Thanks
jaraks said:
Hi,
My question is, whats the cause for a bootloop after it optimises apps.
Basically I was doing really well modding out my XA, until I tried adoptable storage. It was not really functional using the root essential app. Atleast not for me. So I started to use apps2sd which I found to be really good, alot better at finding the second partition, more options etc.
To cut it short, after I couldn't find what was taking up so much space,
I moved a heck of alot of apps to sd card,
removed some apps, - apps removed - chinese keyboard and a photo feature. I also added some root apps in, and removed kobo books etc :s
canned it,
reset the phone in twrp,
now it bootloops.
My immediate problem is that I can't wipe cache?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had to reinstall the firmware thanks to Malleliu at
https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xa/help/bootloop-flashing-33-2-3-81-firmware-t3502160
I now don't have a recovery though, so I'll count myself luckier than bricked and stop modding.
At first I tried manually deleting cache in TWRP then formatting and immediately rebooting TWRP. Whether this was right, someone can scrutinize. So I think my problem was irreparably messing with system apps, which may make sense seeming as alot of apps in an xperia device seem to be linked. And when it did essentially format a non existing folder, it was still not booting.
Anyway peace out peeps, I'm going to enjoy a stock phone.
Wiping cache is useless, use file explorer in TWRP and you will see that there is near nothing in it, partition size is less than 200Mb. Only recovery logs and few things. If you really need to wipe it use fastboot command.
Adoptable Storage works very well only if you don't use mixed AS, only full. I use it with a SanDisk 128Gb class 10 SDCard.