Reliability of TWRP backups (Pie) - Google Pixel 3a Questions & Answers

Hi,
With my playing around with AOSP on the 3a, I've found TWRP to be reasonably reliable to restoring me to a functional phone after I blew something up. What I haven't tested is rolling back from Android 10 builds to a Android 9 backup via TWRP.
I'm wanting to try out Android 10 AOSP builds using the RattlesnakeOS AWS Stack scripts but I don't actually know if my Pie backups taken with TWRP will restore correctly. Especially since the partition layout is changed with Android 10.
My intuition tells me I can do this to roll back to an Android 9 TWRP backup.
1. Flash an Android 9 factory image from Google via fastboot. This will allow a downgrade as it will repartition the phone back to the Pie partitioning layout
2. Boot TWRP and restore my Android 9 backup. System, Data.
3. reboot.
Does this sound reasonable? Basically I have a free weekend and I'm very bored and feel like blowing up my phone all day

Related

Restore data after android p beta

hey guys, is there any way i can restore all apps and data after upgrading from latest stable oxygen to android p beta (and a wipe that follows the upgrade)? not sure if oneplus switch backup function does the job or what about TWRP backup? my device is not rooted btw.
thanks!
DId you take a backup in TWRP before flashing to P?
If you did you may be able to boot into TWRP and restore just Data and reboot, you should still be on P but have all your apps and data available.
There was no wipe the last time I upgraded from stock to p beta. It upgraded it just fine.

Restoring TWRP backup

Hi all, may I know if i can restore a TWRP backup made in android PIE from my phone which was upgraded to android 10?
Unfortunately you cannot There is a Pie downgrade file on here floating around you will have to use.

From OOS 10.0.1 trying to install LOS 16.0 as a beginner and failing completely

I'm trying to install LOS 16.0 but it just won't work. I've tried using the TWRP 3.3.1-16 Q Unofficial by mauronofrio and it works that I can get into TWRP and can flash the rom and GApps, but then after that process once I try to boot into the OS it is just forever stuck in either fastboot or stuck on the bootloader unlocked warning screen. I did realize that I had to use fastboot flash boot twrp*.img because they disabled fastboot boot twrp*.img in the Android 10 update, but then am I supposed to reflash something on that boot partition now? The whole process is very confusing and the instructions from the LineageOS seem to not work at all. Is there anything I can do right now or is it just not possible to install this until TWRP, or OOS, or something I'm not knowledgeable enough to know about updates?
It's because you are using OOS 10.1 as a base (android 10) and you are trying to install Lineage OS 16 (android 9), so it's quite obvious why it isn't working. Try lineage OS 17 instead.
TheSproker said:
It's because you are using OOS 10.1 as a base (android 10) and you are trying to install Lineage OS 16 (android 9), so it's quite obvious why it isn't working. Try lineage OS 17 instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lineage OS 17 won't work either. The developer intentionally used OOS 9 as base since fastboot boot command doesn't work yet on OOS 10. OP needs to downgrade to OOS 9 first, whichever of the two Lineage OS versions they wish to use.
remewer said:
Lineage OS 17 won't work either. The developer intentionally used OOS 9 as base since fastboot boot command doesn't work yet on OOS 10. OP needs to downgrade to OOS 9 first, whichever of the two Lineage OS versions they wish to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this. I downgraded to 9.0.9 and still the fastboot boot command is not working. Apparently this has something to do with the bootloader image itself not being downgraded?
I give up now, my temp phone I was using for holding backups for chat data just randomly wiped itself on havocOS and I've just lost years of chats and stuff and it's got me really down right now. They did fix the fastboot boot issue with today's 10.3.0 update but still nothing is working from any tutorial to get this thing to work on lineage, it just won't boot to it and twrp keeps having errors during flashing. This used to be so much easier on my older phones and I've installed this OS on about 5 phones now but OnePlus 6 just doesn't seem to work no matter what. I'm just going to go back to OOS and hope LineageOS 17.0 will get these issues ironed out by the time it releases. Severely disappointing and a waste of 3 days now but oh well
In my opinion, this is the easiest way to downgrade everything to OOS 9, including bootloader https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/op6-collection-unbrick-tools-t3914109
After that, just unlock the bootloader again like usual and follow the LOS16/17 page's install instructions and you should be good to go.
I tried to install Havoc 3.5 while i was on 10 Ob2, unlocked bootloader and installed patched twrp, then rom. Got stuck in fastboot mode. **** hell i messed everything, later i found fastboot recovery rom from xda, flashed it, thank god it saved me. For me, msm tool was not getting connected, got an error like sahara xyz something... Then after refering to multiple xda threads came to know that most of the present 10 custom roms are based on oos android 9. Then again i used downgrade package from community, reverted back to ob 25 oos (pie), then as usual installation process. So if you are interested in custom roms, downgrade to pie. And again i wanted to go back to complete stock from havoc but unfortunately msm was not responding and fastboot roms wont support upgradation (im not sure), i went to twrp and installed stable 9.0.9 to both partitions + twrp installer. Then 10 oos stable to both partitions + twrp. Then booted up and installed Ob2 again from system updater, lost twrp on that process, then locked bootloader, so mow completely stock ? lot of work for nothing ? oos is better for me.. infact i got used to that. maybe i should purchase another phone to continue the momentum of getting latest updates. crazy oos influence ?

anyone get twrp 3.4 working with android 10?

TLDR
anyone get twrp 3.4 working with android 10? twrp released version 3.4 which supposedly supports android 10 and pixel 3a is a supported device. i flashed twrp and now twrp boots but nothing else does. its not a problem i can give it a try again just wondering how other people flashed it and got it to work.
long version:
TWRP released version 3.4 which supports android 10! yay im all happy and crap because pixel 3a is supported so i flash a kernel that supports LZMA compression. (i installed elemental x for android 10) and now i meet all the requirements. go to boot the .img file like they say using fastboot. i typed into ubuntu terminal "fastboot boot twrp3.4sargo.img" i get "error verifying the received boot.img: invalid parameter" this is the same exact error when booting older twrp recoveries because they arent compatible with android 10. not a problem though i thought! i have ex kernel manager so i can flash the twrp zip file through there! (thats what twrp website tells you to do if twrp had booted anyways so i thought well maybe i can skip that step since it isnt booting anyway and just flash the damn file) so i open ex kernel manager and flash the zip file! twrp boots im all happy and then i go to reboot and S#!+. nothing boots except twrp. anyone have any ideas on getting this to work since supposedly pixel3a android 10 is supported now?
Whenever Ive seen that error it means its not recognizing the partition youre trying to flash. Try adding the "a" or "b" after boot. So fastboot boot boot_a or boot_b depending on which is the active partition.
All this said, what are you trying to flash? A patched boot image or TWRP? If TWRP then you dont want to flash it to the boot partition, that goes to recovery.
Have you ever had to flash a full factory image of Android 10 (not just an OTA update)? TWRP will only work on Android 10 if the device was updated from Android 9 and still retains it's Android 9 file structure. I'm wondering if the file structure gets changed to the regular Android 10 file structure when you flash a full factory image vs an OTA update from Android 9 to Android 10 - I'm betting that it does. This would mean that TWRP would not work.
I honestly didn't even know this was released and I will try to install it on my 3A XL later today. I have flashed an Android 10 factory image since I moved from 9 to 10 via an OTA update, so I guess I will be able to test my hypothesis.
ctfrommn said:
Whenever Ive seen that error it means its not recognizing the partition youre trying to flash. Try adding the "a" or "b" after boot. So fastboot boot boot_a or boot_b depending on which is the active partition.
All this said, what are you trying to flash? A patched boot image or TWRP? If TWRP then you dont want to flash it to the boot partition, that goes to recovery.
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Click to collapse
Sorry been busy didn't have time to check this. I did try to flash to recovery. Flashing to boot was a typo. Same error result though. I'll try the a b partition thing later.
sic0048 said:
Have you ever had to flash a full factory image of Android 10 (not just an OTA update)? TWRP will only work on Android 10 if the device was updated from Android 9 and still retains it's Android 9 file structure. I'm wondering if the file structure gets changed to the regular Android 10 file structure when you flash a full factory image vs an OTA update from Android 9 to Android 10 - I'm betting that it does. This would mean that TWRP would not work.
I honestly didn't even know this was released and I will try to install it on my 3A XL later today. I have flashed an Android 10 factory image since I moved from 9 to 10 via an OTA update, so I guess I will be able to test my hypothesis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ever get it to work?
AudibleDruid said:
Did you ever get it to work?
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Click to collapse
I haven't tried yet. Honestly I'm not very motivated either. I'm 99.9% sure it won't work (because I have flashed a full factory image of Android 10 since taking the OTA update) and I don't feel like getting myself into a situation where I might have to reset my phone. I realize it shouldn't go that far, but the "reward" simply isn't worth the risk for me right now.
The Pixel-3a partition scheme was updated when upgraded to Android 10, i.e. the Pixel-3a is an exception to the rule that a device launched with Android 9 is compatible with TWRP 3.4. The Pixel-3a having Android 10 has the same structure like a device directly launched with Android 10 and so TWRP 3.4 will not work.

Help making a Backup before installing magisk+twrp OP8 IN2015 - already unlocked bootloader.

Hello! I've been rooting and installing custom ROMs for years but it's been a long while since I last did it, I got a oneplus 8 global (IN2015) late last year, unlocked the bootloader as soon as I got it out of the box since I knew eventually I would want to flash some stuff. but I have kept it stock this long. Running latest Oxygen 11 android 11
Since I want to start flashing some kernels or roms I wanted to ask about making a backup since I've never had a phone without sd card slot where I would usually store backups.
Can I still use titanium backup to keep all of my apps/data/photos/videos and the state they are in, store it in my pc , then go about flashing a custom Rom and then bring my titanium backup back into the phone and restore everything?
since I'll be installing custom roms based on android 11 I believe it will be fine with no conflicts? or does it matter that my apps were installed in Oxygen OS?
that's what I used to do with older phones anyway. is there a way to flash a rom while having the titanium backup still in storage since most roms require full whipe when clean installing them?
Recently twrp added official support for OP8 and when I open the official app it recognizes my phone as instant noodle but when I click search for phone it says it can't connect to the server? should I flash official twrp from the app or via fastboot? which I'm also quite rusty with.
any tips for a step by step would be appreciated
Hello, I was in the same boat as you since I came to the OP 8 from a Galaxy S4. Titanium backup should work for what you want to do, as long as the custom rom is also based on A11 (disclaimer: I haven't tried it; I'm running rooted stock OOS 11 with a custom kernel). If the rom you want to install requires a data partition format, you can't keep the backups there during the flashing process. If it only needs a data wipe / factory reset, everything in the sdcard directory (also known as /data/media) should be preserved.
I'd say just flash TWRP in fastboot. Flash it to both recovery slots, and read up on how flashing works with A/B slot devices if you aren't familiar, since you'll need to know about it when flashing roms also. It's a big difference from what I was used to with older devices.
Thanks for the reply, yeah I was thinking of just going with a custom kernel since I have so much stuff going on the phone I find it really a chore to backup, but still might want to try it.
What kernel are you using and how are you liking it ?

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