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Backing up and Restoring - Stock ROM

is there a non intrusive (as in rooting not required) method
for "backing up" and "restoring" a Samsung S6 (SM-G920I) stock ROM.
thank you in advance.
note: not interested in any custom rom nor any tinkering. this is strictly for recovery option should the operating system ever get corrupt or get mal-ware.

UaVaj said:
is there a non intrusive (as in rooting not required) method
for "backing up" and "restoring" a Samsung S6 (SM-G920I) stock ROM.
thank you in advance.
note: not interested in any custom rom nor any tinkering. this is strictly for recovery option should the operating system ever get corrupt or get mal-ware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smart switch can backup every thing u need with out a custom recovey theres no way to make a complete img backup

given the lack of response here and limited results via any search engine/forum.
perhaps there is no such method available.
given that said. all these "stock" rom floating around available for download.
these must be all rooted stock rom then.
if not. how did the owners of these stock rom rips the original rom off the device?
for further clarification. simply looking to back up the original operating system and could care less about the latter data/updates.

UaVaj said:
given the lack of response here and limited results via any search engine/forum.
perhaps there is no such method available.
given that said. all these "stock" rom floating around available for download.
these must be all rooted stock rom then.
if not. how did the owners of these stock rom rips the original rom off the device?
for further clarification. simply looking to back up the original operating system and could care less about the latter data/updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As said before, Smart Switch is the tool to use. In case of emergency you factory reset your phone and use this tool to recover broken system files and restore your data.
Stock roms are compiled with the official firmwares you get from sammobile.

The following method has been used from the begging of the android i think.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-create-a-full-backup-of-your-android-device-without-root/
(If external links are not allowed ,inform me and i will remove immediately! )
Please note that i have not personally tested the ADB backup method,but i dont see any reason to not work with user apps and data.
Dont know about system files on the other hand.
Also you dont need to install the whole Android SDK, just the adb files and drivers (google them).

nighthawk696969 said:
The following method has been used from the begging of the android i think.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-create-a-full-backup-of-your-android-device-without-root/
(If external links are not allowed ,inform me and i will remove immediately! )
Please note that i have not personally tested the ADB backup method,but i dont see any reason to not work with user apps and data.
Dont know about system files on the other hand.
Also you dont need to install the whole Android SDK, just the adb files and drivers (google them).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This method works for the APKs off the installed Userapps but not for data. And it's definitely not working for system files because you would need root for that.
It's a good question how to backup data of userapps without root. But nowadays most apps sync their data to the cloud.

thank you all for trying to help. greatly appreciated.
however this is not getting anywhere.
one last time. "this is strictly for backing up and restoring the operating system (android 5.1.1) incase of corruption or malware." not the user application. not the user data. not user settings.
for restore - looks like odin can handle the restore. just have to root the device first. and then it will be back to factory stock.
for backup - want the current stock rom on the s6 in my hand and keep it 100.0% original. is seems to be a dead end.
why? have a "stock" note3 that got malware so bad. malware has embedded itself into the root. even a master reset does not get rid of the malware. just bought a S6. does not want history to repeat itself. hence looking for a non invasive backup/restore method.

Regarding the state of data backups in Android

Hi Everyone,
I am new to XDA, and I am really proud to be in this community.
I have created this thread to discuss about the current situation with backup of data in Android, as I did not find any thread which covers my specific concerns. This is meant to be part discussion, part rant, part guide, etc.
Now to the actual scenario. I have a Moto G (2014), which used to run stock unrooted 6.0, and I used a combination of Helium (free version), manual file backup, and import/export options from various apps to back up my data. I recently flashed the official 14.1 Lineage OS ROM with GApps Pico and Lineage OS su package to root. All went well, and I could restore the backups as planned. SMS restore did not work, but I did not bother much about that.
Now, if I try to use Helium to backup my apps, it shows me an error. No detail is provided about the error. On digging further into the ADB backup feature (which is the underlying technique for Helium), I found that I can not even backup the data to the .ab files everyone talks about. I came by a blog which advised creating the backup using .adb extension, and it worked for one or two apps. In all probability, .ab has been replaced by .adb files - experts can suggest, I can not find anything online.
Now came the second twist. I wanted to backup a game which does not support cloud save. And it apparently saves the app data in /data/app, which ADB backup probably does not support - again, experts can enlighten me on this. I noticed that apps saving in /data/data were getting backed up, while the /data/app one was not.
Now the question may arise that since I am rooted, I can easily access these backups through file system or Titanium, without the need for ADB backup. But I am really worried about a scenario when I have to buy a new phone (the current one is already running for 3+ years). I am really wary of rooting a new phone and losing the warranty in the process. In such cases, root based backups can not be restored to the new phone. To validate this, I tried to restore a specific save file to my unrooted tablet, but could not get in even using ADB shell (this may seem foolish, but I thought since ADB backup can access /data/data, may be ADB shell too can access the protected partitions).
So, after this long exercise, my finding is that, unless we are rooted, better forget the backup. It makes me very uneasy to know that I can not carry over my progress in a game to another phone because the developer does not support cloud save (even cloud saves are not full proof, but I will rant about that some other day).
Is there something I am missing? Or is this the scenario all over? And if it is, why can't a ten year old platform provide such a basic feature? And finally, if there is some tool/technique which lets me backup/restore data on an unrooted device, please point me to that.
I believe XDA is the only place I can put these questions/rants forward. Thanks for reading.

Please ask your question only in one place :good: I answered you here https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2717159&p=75474972

Looking for a solution to make a backup image of my SM-N900V

As the title says, I am looking for a solution to make a backup image of my SM-N900V. I did not post this in the Note 3 forum as this seems like it should be a generic task but I have been unable to find anything related to this online.
I don't want to just backup photos, docs, etc. I want to take an entire image which I could later restore and the phone would return to the exact state it was at when I took the image. Just like when you image a PC.
Is this just not possible with phones? Or am I missing something here?
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

you will need twrp for that

You may use
[TOOL][ADB][WIN]Android Partitions Backupper / Cloner
Hi all, wrote a Windows CMD script that backups / clones partitions of an Android device via ADB because I wasn't content with any 3rd-party APK what claims to do this job. The backups /clones are stored on Windows computer as...
forum.xda-developers.com

Back up your android phone on the device itself is not a wise choice.
While devices that have Android 4.0 and above can be backed up from the Android SDK and saved to a file on your PC. This process will allow you to have all of the data from your phone placed into a backup file on your computer.
You will need to download and set up the Android SDK on your computer. This will be used to initiate the backup and restore process on your Android devices. It’s also recommended that you set your device’s display sleep timer to a time that will disable it from turning off during the process.
How to fully backup and restore your Android device without root
One of Android’s little-known tricks is its built-in backup and restore process that allows users to save their private data...
9to5google.com

Thank you guys, I will look in to those and post back.
Piter101, I guess I did not specify where I wanted the backup stored. But yes, I want it to be taken by PC preferably and stored on the PC. A complete backup image cannot typically be taken by a running system, especially if it is stored on the same volume being imaged.

Both to an external drive and to encrypted cloud storage would a good bet to keep your data safe.

is it possible to us majisk without factory resetting?

i'm trying to recover data (mostly folders in my internal storage such as screenshots, screecaptures, etc.) but the programs i am using need my phone to be rooted. My phone runs on android 9 and needs it's bootloder to be unlocked but i need to know if there is a way to d this without factory resetting which may overwrite the lost data which i cannot recover when doing so.

A Factoy Reset only wipes files what means it deletes their entries in Android's inode-table , it doesn't overwrite them. The diskspace previously allocated by the now wiped files becomes orphaned, thus can get reused.

Use ADB pull to extract user-data files where a rooted Android isn't needed.
See also here:
How to Download Files to the Computer with ADB Pull - KrispiTech
You can actually copy and download files from your Android smartphone to the PC using some simple ADB Pull commands as long as you enabled USB Debugging.
krispitech.com

so i can still recover files i deleted prior to a factory reset needed to unlock my oem?

please reply

To recover deleted files Android must be rooted and a special commercial forensic software must be used. GIYF ...

xXx yYy said:
To recover deleted files Android must be rooted and a special commercial forensic software must be used. GIYF ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you know any that i should use?

Your device is encrypted with FDE. the same answer applies. One can't recover data after factory reset. encryption key is gone forever, and so is your data.
edit: if you haven't done factory reset yet, device might still encrypted with same crypto-footer. this leads you to hypothetical option to obtain temporary root shell and pull decrypted block partition /dev/block/dm-0 (or whatever)
assuming you found vulnerability/exploit and managed to get raw dump, still your chances to recover deleted files are low, because of the way android flash translation controller handles eMMC flash storage.

aIecxs said:
Your device is encrypted with FDE. the same answer applies. One can't recover data after factory reset. encryption key is gone forever, and so is your data.
edit: if you haven't done factory reset yet, device might still encrypted with same crypto-footer. this leads you to hypothetical option to obtain temporary root shell and pull decrypted block partition /dev/block/dm-0 (or whatever)
assuming you found vulnerability/exploit and managed to get raw dump, still your chances to recover deleted files are low, because of the way android handles eMMC flash storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if only i have discovered these posts sooner...
so those recovery apps are useless?

most of the data recovery tools / one-click-rooting apps aren't working anymore since marshmallow. there are however some companies like cellebrite claiming they can still hack. maybe they got somehow access to Samsungs OEM signing keys idk

Don't know if I got you right, you haven't factory reset your device, yet?
This app might help you to find existing files and thumbnails of deleted files. To my understanding it won't undelete anything but some users claim different. It will search for hidden trash can in gallery, maybe you are lucky...
FindMyPhoto – Recover Photos o - Apps on Google Play
A truely free app to recover deleted photos on Android devices.
play.google.com

aIecxs said:
Don't know if I got you right, you haven't factory reset your device, yet?
This app might help you to find existing files and thumbnails of deleted files. To my understanding it won't undelete anything but some users claim different. It will search for hidden trash can in gallery, maybe you are lucky...
FindMyPhoto – Recover Photos o - Apps on Google Play
A truely free app to recover deleted photos on Android devices.
play.google.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did factory reset...
i should probably give up and move on, shouldn't i?
the app looks really promising, but it has alot of one star reviews

just another useless app..
better root your device, factory reset again and disable encryption. this way you are prepared next time

aIecxs said:
just another useless app..
better root your device, factory reset again and disable encryption. this way you are prepared next time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you actually used the app, seen the reviews, or both?

Best Cellebrite Alternatives & Competitors
Compare the best Cellebrite alternatives in 2023. Explore user reviews, ratings, and pricing of alternatives and competitors to Cellebrite.
sourceforge.net
Besides Cellebrite is there an alternative
Besides Cellebrite is there an alternative to capturing data from a cell phone on the physical side (ie deleted items)? In addition to bypassing the ...
www.forensicfocus.com
https://www.reddit.com/r/computerforensics/comments/a1j43j
These links have cellebrite alternatives and one person said that they use odin + twrp. I hope some of them are freeware/ have free trials. Can someone help me verify if these are legit?

moutsu said:
have you actually used the app, seen the reviews, or both?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
another user suggested this app. but only helpful to find existing pictures in trash can. read full discussion here
https://android.stackexchange.com/q/231132

moutsu said:
These links have cellebrite alternatives and one person said that they use odin + twrp. I hope some of them are freeware/ have free trials. Can someone help me verify if these are legit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
once you factory reset device NOTHING can help you - it's gone. well, technically spoken that's not true, but next to impossible. forensic lab might partially recover old crypto-footer from the lower emmc firmware, and spend some years bruteforcing missing bytes.
TWRP is completely useless for samsung encryption, samsung encryption not supported, yet (although it's possible just a matter of time)
consider: all these tools might still work on quite a few older devices, from the days where exploiting was possible or encryption wasn't hardware-backed. They mainly offer breaking into lock screen and maybe can recover deleted files. They can by-pass locked bootloader, let android do it's work and pull (decrypted) partition image from root shell (for further analysis). They can break into TEE and extract encryption master key for chip-off bruteforce. But none of these tools ever claimed to recover data after factory reset. except for scams (like wondershare Dr. Fone) I don't know anything about iPhone I am talking about Android only.
conclusion:
- if a company offers you JTAG or chip-off they are trying to scam you.
- recovery of deleted files is not the same as recovery after factory reset. encryption is the showstopper here.
Demystifying Android Physical Acquisition
Numerous vendors advertise many types of solutions for extracting evidence from Android devices. The companies claim to support tens of thousands of models, creating the impression that most (if not all) Android devices can be successfully acquired using one method or another. On the other side o
blog.elcomsoft.com

aIecxs said:
once you factory reset device NOTHING can help you - it's gone. well, technically spoken that's not true, but next to impossible. forensic lab might partially recover old crypto-footer from the lower emmc firmware, and spend some years bruteforcing missing bytes.
TWRP is completely useless for samsung encryption, samsung encryption not supported, yet (although it's possible just a matter of time)
consider: all these tools might still work on quite a few older devices, from the days where exploiting was possible or encryption wasn't hardware-backed. They mainly offer breaking into lock screen and maybe can recover deleted files. They can by-pass locked bootloader, let android do it's work and pull (decrypted) partition image from root shell (for further analysis). They can break into TEE and extract encryption master key for chip-off bruteforce. But none of these tools ever claimed to recover data after factory reset. except for scams (like wondershare Dr. Fone) I don't know anything about iPhone I am talking about Android only.
conclusion:
- if a company offers you JTAG or chip-off they are trying to scam you.
- recovery of deleted files is not the same as recovery after factory reset. encryption is the showstopper here.
Demystifying Android Physical Acquisition
Numerous vendors advertise many types of solutions for extracting evidence from Android devices. The companies claim to support tens of thousands of models, creating the impression that most (if not all) Android devices can be successfully acquired using one method or another. On the other side o
blog.elcomsoft.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aww
to let anyone know about how i ended up into this rabbit hole of recovery apps and finding out about xda, heres a backstory: some, if not all, of the folders were deleted in the storage/emulated/0 file directory after possibly me deleting them after they have popped up in an app that accessed your files. this is why i've been asking questions and doing research on how to recover them. i had to root my device according to the answers, but i didnt want to unlock the bootloader but i had to unlock it eventually. i really regret doing that. if this happens to someone in the future, i would ask anyone if it is possible to recover the files in storage/emulated/0 after they were deleted.

aIecxs said:
once you factory reset device NOTHING can help you - it's gone. well, technically spoken that's not true, but next to impossible. forensic lab might partially recover old crypto-footer from the lower emmc firmware, and spend some years bruteforcing missing bytes.
TWRP is completely useless for samsung encryption, samsung encryption not supported, yet (although it's possible just a matter of time)
consider: all these tools might still work on quite a few older devices, from the days where exploiting was possible or encryption wasn't hardware-backed. They mainly offer breaking into lock screen and maybe can recover deleted files. They can by-pass locked bootloader, let android do it's work and pull (decrypted) partition image from root shell (for further analysis). They can break into TEE and extract encryption master key for chip-off bruteforce. But none of these tools ever claimed to recover data after factory reset. except for scams (like wondershare Dr. Fone) I don't know anything about iPhone I am talking about Android only.
conclusion:
- if a company offers you JTAG or chip-off they are trying to scam you.
- recovery of deleted files is not the same as recovery after factory reset. encryption is the showstopper here.
Demystifying Android Physical Acquisition
Numerous vendors advertise many types of solutions for extracting evidence from Android devices. The companies claim to support tens of thousands of models, creating the impression that most (if not all) Android devices can be successfully acquired using one method or another. On the other side o
blog.elcomsoft.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so there IS a way? if it's not impossible then it is possible!

x=1
Kds ld fhud xnt dwzlokd.

How to acquire an Android physical disk image?

Hi there,
As the title suggests, I would like to acquire a physical disk image of my Samsung Galaxy A01 which I will be using Autopsy to analyze. My research has lead me to believe that in order to do so one must first root the device. So my questions are:
1. If I root the device will all the data I am attempting to analyze be deleted/erased in the process?
2. Does anyone know of a good guide for Android disk image acquisition?
I have been following the DFIRScience channel on youtube but in his video on disk image acquisition he uses KingoRoot which according to this rooting guide (last section at bottom of article) by XDA is bad practice.
This rooting guide from guidetoroot.com mentions that during the rooting process all the data will be erased, and this is where my confusion has come from. If that is true it would seem counter productive to the purpose of acquiring a disk image. My operating system is Win 8.1 Pro by the way.
I would very much appreciate it if someone could help me out with this.

Dune_Rat said:
Hi there,
As the title suggests, I would like to acquire a physical disk image of my Samsung Galaxy A01 which I will be using Autopsy to analyze. My research has lead me to believe that in order to do so one must first root the device. So my questions are:
1. If I root the device will all the data I am attempting to analyze be deleted/erased in the process?
2. Does anyone know of a good guide for Android disk image acquisition?
I have been following the DFIRScience channel on youtube but in his video on disk image acquisition he uses KingoRoot which according to this rooting guide (last section at bottom of article) by XDA is bad practice.
This rooting guide from guidetoroot.com mentions that during the rooting process all the data will be erased, and this is where my confusion has come from. If that is true it would seem counter productive to the purpose of acquiring a disk image. My operating system is Win 8.1 Pro by the way.
I would very much appreciate it if someone could help me out with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The guides that discuss the device being wiped during the root process only applies to devices that have locked bootloader. These devices have to unlock the bootloader before they can modify the device, the device gets wiped by default as part of the process of unlocking the bootloader.

Droidriven said:
The guides that discuss the device being wiped during the root process only applies to devices that have locked bootloader. These devices have to unlock the bootloader before they can modify the device, the device gets wiped by default as part of the process of unlocking the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I see, thanks very much, Droidriven. Do you perhaps know of any good recent guides for android disk image acquisition?

Dune_Rat said:
Ah I see, thanks very much, Droidriven. Do you perhaps know of any good recent guides for android disk image acquisition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The term "disk image" does not apply to android. What do you mean by "disk image"?
If you are asking if there is a way to backup the operating system on your device and all other data on your device before you attempt to root your device, there is no way to do that without either root or TWRP custom recovery. You don't need both, but, you do need at least one of them. There are ways to backup user data using adb without root but you can't backup the operating system or anything else in the system partition.
Without root, you, as the user, can only backup user installed apps and their corresponding app data/settings, user data stored in internal storage and device settings.
If the operating system gets corrupted during your rooting attempt, you will have to flash your device's stock firmware via Odin then restore any data that you backed up.

Droidriven said:
The term "disk image" does not apply to android. What do you mean by "disk image"?
If you are asking if there is a way to backup the operating system on your device and all other data on your device before you attempt to root your device, there is no way to do that without either root or TWRP custom recovery. You don't need both, but, you do need at least one of them. There are ways to backup user data using adb without root but you can't backup the operating system or anything else in the system partition.
Without root, you, as the user, can only backup user installed apps and their corresponding app data/settings, user data stored in internal storage and device settings.
If the operating system gets corrupted during your rooting attempt, you will have to flash your device's stock firmware via Odin then restore any data that you backed up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. By "disk image" I was referring to the "cloning" of the device once rooted. I would like to test out some digital forensic software like Autopsy with a real world device like my A01 by acquiring/making a physical disk image of it.
That's the term they use in digital forensics...there's physical and then there's logical disk images. Logical disk images are used more for surface analysis and has limitations on what can be done with it and does not appear to need rooting. Physical disk images on the other hand provide full unrestricted access to all files. Well, that's my understanding of it, anyway.
I would like to try using FTK Imager for this purpose (acquiring a disk image) but it's not detecting the device so I'm also hoping that will be sorted out once the phone has been rooted.

Dune_Rat said:
Thanks for the info. By "disk image" I was referring to the "cloning" of the device once rooted. I would like to test out some digital forensic software like Autopsy with a real world device like my A01 by acquiring/making a physical disk image of it.
That's the term they use in digital forensics...there's physical and then there's logical disk images. Logical disk images are used more for surface analysis and has limitations on what can be done with it and does not appear to need rooting. Physical disk images on the other hand provide full unrestricted access to all files. Well, that's my understanding of it, anyway.
I would like to try using FTK Imager for this purpose (acquiring a disk image) but it's not detecting the device so I'm also hoping that will be sorted out once the phone has been rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're looking for what we call a "nandroid backup", a copy of all data that is stored on the device. Typically, creating a nandroid backup requires either rooting the device then using adb commands to pull a nandroid backup or it requires installing a custom recovery such as TWRP that has an option to create a nandroid backup from within recovery mode.
Your device probably doesn't have a custom recovery/TWRP. Custom recoveries are built specific to the model number that they are to be installed on, there is no such thing as a universal custom recovery that can be used on all android devices. If no developer has chosen to build a version of TWRP for your specific model number then your device can't use TWRP unless you manage to build it for yourself.
These days, most Samsung devices cannot be rooted because they have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked. The only hope of rooting a Samsung device that has a locked bootloader that cannot be unlocked is to find an android app or PC program that has an exploit that your device is vulnerable to. But, these kinds of apps and programs have not been able to root devices since somewhere around the time that android Lollipop or Marshmallow was released, they are no longer able to root today's devices.
You may have to choose another device to experiment with. Preferably one that already has a custom recovery available for that specific model number or has known working root method for that specific model number.
What is your A01's specific model number? That is what will determine wgat is or isn't available for your device and what you can and can't do with it.

Thanks so much for the thorough responses, Droidriven. This has cleared everything up for me. The specific model number of my phone is SM-A015F/DS.

Dune_Rat said:
Thanks so much for the thorough responses, Droidriven. This has cleared everything up for me. The specific model number of my phone is SM-A015F/DS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently, there is a version of TWRP for your model number, but, from what I've been reading, you need to be on android 11 in order to unlock your bootloader then install TWRP. Once you have TWRP installed, you can use it to create a nandroid backup by using the Backup option in TWRP. In your case, you probably want to backup absolutely everything that can be backed up, therefore, when you choose the Backup option in TWRP, on the next screen you'll see a list of partitions to backup, select the partitions you want to backup then initiate the backup by sliding the slider at the bottom. Then you'll have to find the correct tools to extract the data from the backup, it can be tricky because of the type of file that TWRP creates.
unofficial twrp 3.5.2 Root Samsung Galaxy A01 SM-A015F
Download unofficial twrp 3.5.2 Root Samsung Galaxy A01 SM-A015F, user who own Galaxy A01 can root it by following the below Instructions
unofficialtwrp.com

Awesome, this looks promising...I'll take a look at it. Thanks again for all the info, Droidriven, you've been a star.