Hey,
is it possible to update without wiping my data?
The guide on their site says that (with adb sideload) there would be no data wipe and next step expect a factory reset.
Did anyone do this already?
Changing main Android branches (from 12 to 13 in this case) usually can be done without a full wipe, just as long as you're staying on the same flavor (stock MIUI or any custom ROM), so updating is fine.
It's when you go from stock to custom or back that the encryption keys are changed, and forces you to format.
That being said, it's always a good idea to backup anything important that you might have on your internal storage before flashing anything new. You can never be too careful. The 30mins you have to spend backing up your stuff seem pretty insignificant when the day you'll need these backups eventually comes knockin'...
Snakeforhire said:
Changing main Android branches (from 12 to 13 in this case) usually can be done without a full wipe, just as long as you're staying on the same flavor (stock MIUI or any custom ROM), so updating is fine.
It's when you go from stock to custom or back that the encryption keys are changed, and forces you to format.
That being said, it's always a good idea to backup anything important that you might have on your internal storage before flashing anything new. You can never be too careful. The 30mins you have to spend backing up your stuff seem pretty insignificant when the day you'll need these backups eventually comes knockin'...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which program do you use to backup in 30mins?
Up to some time ago Titanium Backup has served me well and proved a very sound investment, but I had to leave it behind since I bought a Poco X3 Pro in '21, as MIUI didn't respond well at all to that...
Now I tend to "backup as I go", extracting the APKs of the apps that I most rely on (or am currently testing) and uploading them to my NAS for safekeeping.
So I really only need to back up the data of the few "most critical" apps I can't live without, and for this -when I can't use cloud backup- I use Neo Backup or Migrate-NG, which takes me less than an hour in total to backup and redeploy.
I am using built-in backup in recovery, namely Orangefox, I think this is your safest bet.
Related
Hi there! I've been reading (a lot) around here the last months and that's been really helpfull. Went from stock GB on my locked XPS through just about all ROM's available for XPS to CM10 now. Thanks XDA, thanks all!
Still a real lot to learn. One of the things that really keeps me wondering is which method (besides a Nandroid) I shld use for backing up. Google takes care of my contacts and settings automatically. But what is the best tool to backup and restore my apps (question 1)? I've used Astro, Go Backup and several others I can't even remember. And if I use one, do I still need Gapps all the time or is that doing a double job (question 2)?
My last question: I understand doing an upgrade of your custom rom you don't need to swipe, so your data stays. But if you do need to, when can you do a data restore after installing a new ROM (question 3)?
1. For backing up and restoring apps, I use Titanium Backup and I think most people would swear by it ( it's worth the donate for the extra features ). For sms though, GoSMS's backup feature is the best working one for me.
2. I'm pretty sure you still need to flash Gapps, but I'm not sure. Been off Cyan for a while. Besides, I think flashing Gapps is faster than restoring through most backup apps.
3. It depends on the rom and you should read the ROM's thread, but I always wipe between updates just in case ( I have an SGSII ). If you mean restore data by Titanium or another app, I think after letting the phone sit for 10 minutes on initial new ROM boot, you can start restoring apps. If you mean selectively restoring just data through nandroid though, I'm not sure if that should even be done, or how exactly to minimize issues.
Hope that helps.
DIMENSIONAL said:
1. For backing up and restoring apps, I use Titanium Backup and I think most people would swear by it ( it's worth the donate for the extra features ). For sms though, GoSMS's backup feature is the best working one for me.
2. I'm pretty sure you still need to flash Gapps, but I'm not sure. Been off Cyan for a while. Besides, I think flashing Gapps is faster than restoring through most backup apps.
3. It depends on the rom and you should read the ROM's thread, but I always wipe between updates just in case ( I have an SGSII ). If you mean restore data by Titanium or another app, I think after letting the phone sit for 10 minutes on initial new ROM boot, you can start restoring apps. If you mean selectively restoring just data through nandroid though, I'm not sure if that should even be done, or how exactly to minimize issues.
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tx DIMENSIONAL!
Late night yesterday I ran into this app here on fxp: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1859261 Maybe that might become (be) handy? Not for me yet, due to problems with XPS for this app at the moment
2. Gapps.... Gapps is faster for sure. But not off course not exactly the things you want.... But there's something out to make your own zip.file with all your apps and/or other data and system files in it I think. Stopped reading when it got to complicated for me to try without much feedback at that moment. Sorry I forgot to mark the thread. Lost it for now.
3. I did this data restore thing once after reading a tip in a thread for a particular ROM here somewhere.
VincentKnife said:
tx DIMENSIONAL!
Late night yesterday I ran into this app here on fxp: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1859261 Maybe that might become (be) handy? Not for me yet, due to problems with XPS for this app at the moment
2. Gapps.... Gapps is faster for sure. But not off course not exactly the things you want.... But there's something out to make your own zip.file with all your apps and/or other data and system files in it I think. Stopped reading when it got to complicated for me to try without much feedback at that moment. Sorry I forgot to mark the thread. Lost it for now.
3. I did this data restore thing once after reading a tip in a thread for a particular ROM here somewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
edit: installed titanium backup; needs a lot of reading agai,n but looks great! tx again!
Another vote for titanium & the pro key here. I prefer"appextractor“ from the play store for my sms/mms restore & I also use the contact restore feature, since it also takes care of my call log (both of these features use data from nandroid), since I have given up on using titanium to restore sms & get the time accurate.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2
Hi guys,
Unfortunately my Nexus 5 kinda died on me today and I'm almost devastated. The phone froze and then restarted (I pressed the power button a couple of time, so I’m not sure if I restarted it or it did it by itself) and stayed stuck on the Google logo screen. I tried a couple of things but none works – booting it in recovery -> wipe partition cache; shutting it down and restarting it; leave it like that and praying to God…
I need your help. What can I do in order to fix this and keep my personal data on the phone – apps (with their data – I have a couple of journaling apps that are very important to me), messages, pictures, history, calls and so on…
The most important thing for me is to retrieve this data, so a factory reset is out of the question. Is there any way I can fix this? If not, how can I recover/retrieve all my data from the phone?
P.S. I'm using the latest Android OS, without that last OTA update, the booloader is unlocked and stock...
You could flash twrp, create a nandroid backup, copy the backup to your phone for safe keeping, restore the backup to an identical phone (you'll have to change the serial number of the backup to the phone that will be used for the restore), and hope it all works.
If you don't have access to an identical phone, you could try wiping the phone and restoring the backup.
You could flash twrp and copy off the important data.
Lastly, you could flash a stock rom, flash twrp, and restore your data and apps.
audit13 said:
You could flash twrp, create a nandroid backup, copy the backup to your phone for safe keeping, restore the backup to an identical phone (you'll have to change the serial number of the backup to the phone that will be used for the restore), and hope it all works.
If you don't have access to an identical phone, you could try wiping the phone and restoring the backup.
You could flash twrp and copy off the important data.
Lastly, you could flash a stock rom, flash twrp, and restore your data and apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your kind and quick reply. I'm almost a complete android illiterate so I will bug you with a couple more questions, just for a better understanding.
So flashing TWRP means installing it...
1. Am I able to do this, considering the state of my phone? And will I be able to do the nandroid backup?
2. Is this tutorial good? http://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-install-twrp/
3. My phone is not rooted. Does this matter?
4. My phone has a capacity of 15 gb, of which approx. 1.5 gb were left free... Will I still be able to do the backup?
Thank you
The TWRP tutorial should be good - it's an XDA post...
You don't have to install TWRP, though it's a good idea unless you really don't want it. You can run it temporarily and on the next boot you'll be back to normal stock recovery. Booting temporarily will allow you to make a backup, but the risk is that you also back up the problem and then restoring the backup will also restore the problem - but it's worth a try.
"3. My phone is not rooted. Does this matter?" No, TWRP doesn't need root.
"4. My phone has a capacity of 15 gb, of which approx. 1.5 gb were left free... Will I still be able to do the backup?" Probably not - a backup is probably about 3GB, but if you manage to get as far as connecting to your PC and seeing your internal storage in Windows Explorer, you can copy the essential data (photos, etc.) to the PC and then do the backup and attempt the restore.
Press power & volume down simultaneously until you get to the bootloader screen with the green robot on its back. Connect the device to the PC - I'd recommend a direct laptop connection, not via a USB hub.
Start a CMD window and navigate to your PC adb/fastboot directory.
Type "fastboot devices" (no apostrophes) - if you're properly connected, you'll see something like "459uirgggg4 fastboot", which is your device id. A blank line means no connection.
To boot TWRP temporarily - "fastboot boot twrp.img".
To install TWRP permanently - "fastboot flash recovery twrp.img".
Once complete, use the volume keys to find "Reboot recovery". When you're in recovery, with any luck you may be able to see your internal storage in Windows Explorer, and you can at least retrieve your data. You could then try the restore, and if it doesn't work, a full installation of the latest ROM and rebuild your device from there (though Google automatically restores most of your apps if you had chosen that option).
Double-check these commands against other posts - I offer no guarantees, but at least a bit of hope...
Good luck.
Thank you! One more quick question, if I get as far as connecting and seeing my internal storage, would I be able to erase some data, in order to make room for the backup?
Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Photos are simple to identify, take up quite a lot of room, and can easily be transferred to your PC for safety and then deleted from the device. Anything free-standing (i.e. photos, for example, are independent of the app which captured them) and easily-identifiable, copy and delete from the device. Things like SMSs are trickier, since they may be held in not-obvious places or formats. If you take a copy to your PC, and delete to free space, you may have enough space for the backup, but as I mentioned you may just be backing up the problem as well as the system (backups don't tend to copy user data).
dahawthorne said:
Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Photos are simple to identify, take up quite a lot of room, and can easily be transferred to your PC for safety and then deleted from the device. Anything free-standing (i.e. photos, for example, are independent of the app which captured them) and easily-identifiable, copy and delete from the device. Things like SMSs are trickier, since they may be held in not-obvious places or formats. If you take a copy to your PC, and delete to free space, you may have enough space for the backup, but as I mentioned you may just be backing up the problem as well as the system (backups don't tend to copy user data).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, here's the current situation - I managed to connect it to my pc and it's visible.
I saved my photos and cleared up some space. I now have 9 GB of available memory.
I tried TWRP (didn't install it though, as I receive an error, saying that it can't complete the command) and manage to boot it and enter the backup menu.
Unfortunately, it cannot backup my data, as it remains stuck on "updating partition details"...
Not sure what to do... Should I wait longer? It stayed like that for approx. 50 min, before I restarted it. Should I try a previous version of TWRP? Should I try a different program/method of doing a nandroid backup?
Also, there were options to backup my: system, cache, data, boot etc. Choosing to backup only my data would do the trick? As I said, I'm most concerned about my journaling apps, that were not backed up.
Anyways, here is something interesting that happened after I restarted it during the TWRP stuck backup process - the phone started and passed the google logo screen! And I managed to enter it. Things appeared to be normal and I was overwhelmed by hope. However, when I tried to open an app, it froze and started all over again. And one more detail, the battery was low, like 10%. It was low yesterday, too, when it died the first time. Could it be related? Do you guys make anything out of this? Should I proceed by backing up my data and flash a new OS?
Nice to see some progress...
The first thing to do is to get the battery properly charged. Some functions (I'm thinking specifically of encryption, which demands at least 50% charge plus the device plugged in) won't work properly on a low charge. It may not be the cause, but it certainly won't help if the battery is low.
9GB is now plenty to take an entire backup. The TWRP backup screen shows how much data is in each partition. I'm not entirely sure exactly what "data" does back up - I very much doubt (from experience) that it will back up things like photos, but as I said before some data is stored in obscure places and you may be lucky. Back up everything except cache - the defaults in 3.0.2.
Definitely back up EFS. Read around and see the havoc it causes if you have problems and don't have it backed up.
So... you temporarily booted into TWRP? Latest 3.0.2? And the "updating partition details" message was after you pressed the backup button? There shouldn't be any delay - my backups of 6GB on my N6 take only 5 minutes - the N5 is slower but not that much slower, and you have a lot less to back up. If TWRP still continues to be difficult, yes, try the previous version. Even back to a version 2 if necessary.
Try the backup when the device is charged, save it to your PC, and then reboot. Fingers crossed. Good luck.
dahawthorne said:
Nice to see some progress...
The first thing to do is to get the battery properly charged. Some functions (I'm thinking specifically of encryption, which demands at least 50% charge plus the device plugged in) won't work properly on a low charge. It may not be the cause, but it certainly won't help if the battery is low.
9GB is now plenty to take an entire backup. The TWRP backup screen shows how much data is in each partition. I'm not entirely sure exactly what "data" does back up - I very much doubt (from experience) that it will back up things like photos, but as I said before some data is stored in obscure places and you may be lucky. Back up everything except cache - the defaults in 3.0.2.
Definitely back up EFS. Read around and see the havoc it causes if you have problems and don't have it backed up.
So... you temporarily booted into TWRP? Latest 3.0.2? And the "updating partition details" message was after you pressed the backup button? There shouldn't be any delay - my backups of 6GB on my N6 take only 5 minutes - the N5 is slower but not that much slower, and you have a lot less to back up. If TWRP still continues to be difficult, yes, try the previous version. Even back to a version 2 if necessary.
Try the backup when the device is charged, save it to your PC, and then reboot. Fingers crossed. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dahawthorne, thank you! I managed to make a backup after following your suggestion regarding the battery.
However, I didn't do a factory reset... not yet. Something strange happened while I tinkering with it (basically starting it and shutting it down with a furry) - it entered the OS! And everything was there and seemed to be fine, I was able to access my apps and saved a couple of things. But... when I clicked on a web page, it froze again and I was back at square one. Could it be that I have too many tabs/web pages in the background?
If it's only Chrome (or other browser?) that's making it freeze, you might want to try installing a different browser.
In the meantime, given your situation, I'd concentrate on recovering all the data you want and copying it to your PC for safety in case you have to resort to a factory reset or full re-flash of the ROM.
In case you can't find the data for the reasons I originally mentioned, you could try the Play Store for backup applications - e.g. there's a good SMS backup app which will back up & restore your texts. There may be something similar for your journaling app.
(And what's a "furry"...? )
I'm about to do an upgrade from an stock ROM to Cyanogenmod on a phone I have a lot of apps and settings on.
I know the guides always say "back up before upgrading in case it fails, then upgrade, you'll lose all your previous data". And I know that's the normal way it goes.
I'm a noob to the android OS structure, but is it possible to manually take any parts of the pre-upgrade backup data and paste it in the new OS?
For example how you can copy a lot of programs and AppData (profiles, settings etc) from one installation/version of windows to another.
In my case it would take a lot of extra configuration work even after I use the play store to re-download all the apps. Not to mention some apps are from for ex fdroid or github. And then there's the xposed modules.
Cheers!
I guess I'll upgrade and then try to overwrite app data folders and see how that goes.
I know a lot of you here upgrade your ROMs like every week. Do you spend like 3 days customizing your phone back after each flash?
[EDIT] Found an answer. No thanks to you friendly community (why did someone rate my thread down without saying anything?).
- I found out that Titanium Backup can batch-store all your apps and app data - I wonder if it stores stuff like my Catapult Launcher screen layout and folders.
- Also if all you're doing is an OTA upgrade, you can do it without loosing root: http://www.howtogeek.com/192402/why-androids-ota-updates-remove-root-and-how-to-keep-it/
So flash the new ROM, Root, restore from Titanium (since CWM does a system(-based) image afaik).
Dear community, I am facing several troubles with my OP7pro which I think can be quite easily handled but my knowledge is just too little.
I am running OOS 10.0.2 with Renovate ICE, rooted with Magisk and on TWRP 3.3.1-70 - stock kernel and normally encrypted. I am facing various troubles that started after upgrading from 9.5.13 tot Android 10. I do not know if they are directly related. I do have Nandroids, BUT the phone is my daily driver, also for work, and a factory reset will just take too much time.
What are the troubles you ask?
- I am not able to enter the menu Buttons&Gestures/navigation/set up navigation bar. The screen blinks and I am back in the upper menu. If I press this menu again I get a "Settings stopped". This sucks, because I want to set up my on-screen buttons
- I used to use Plus Beat in combination with RICE on Android 9. Worked perfect. Whatever I set up, Plus Beat just does not work. That sucks big time.
- I am not able to set on screen buttons to for example switch between recent apps or get anything else but horizontal recents (which is slow and to me sucks). QuickSwitch via Magisk doesn't bring anything.
NOW TO THE QUESTIONS:
I GUESS (! but am not sure!) that a factoryreset could and should solve these problems. I could and would do that, but, I need to be up and running and have my settings back quickly. Internal memory (root) I could copy to PC and paste back afterwords. But is there some way I could put my settings (in the menu) and all my apps (250+) back via Nandroid data?
I have the following things backed up in TWRP:
- Boot
- System Image
- Vendor Image
- Data
- Modem
- EFS
If I do a complete new factory set-up (for example via Maurefranio's tool), to refresh my system (I guess the failure is in there), can I put back other parts of the Nandroid to have all the rest back? Also in the menu-settings, color-setting etc. etc. etc.?
I know it sounds rooky, but I hope someone takes time to help me a little. I do use Titaninium etc. but I can't spend hours and hours on a recovery. In that case I'd probably decide to keep using the OP7pro as I do, but it's frustrating that RICE and Plus Beat don't work fully and some other errors. The usability to me is 4 out of 10 - where in Android 9 it was surely 9 out of 10.
Greetings,
existenz
Are you running a substratum theme? That could be the settings issue. But that's about all I could help with. Never restored anything using twrp on this phone. Most I've done is backup my apps with swift backup, factory reset, or MSM tool, and restore my apps.
How quickly do you need your phone up and running? You could backup with swift backup, factory reset and only restore what you need for now then do the rest when you have time.
@GeekMcLeod: no, Substratum not even installed. All this trouble started after the regular update to Android 10.
But more my question is: IF I flash the whole phone back to factory setting (not a reset because the errors might still be there so a complete whipe and re-flash) - which part of Nandroid is usefull to get SETTINGS and APPS back? Just that. The internal memory I can copy and paste back.
I really hope someone can give me a quick instruction of how this works. Much appreciated!
exis_tenz said:
@GeekMcLeod: no, Substratum not even installed. All this trouble started after the regular update to Android 10.
But more my question is: IF I flash the whole phone back to factory setting (not a reset because the errors might still be there so a complete whipe and re-flash) - which part of Nandroid is usefull to get SETTINGS and APPS back? Just that. The internal memory I can copy and paste back.
I really hope someone can give me a quick instruction of how this works. Much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In that case, I would just use swift backup, backup to your device. Transfer SD card contents to your computer, factory reset. Transfer SD card files back. Swift backup can backup all apps and data. I believe that would work for what you want.
I, however, do not know what parts of the nandroid do what as I usually just don't bother with it.
GeekMcLeod: appreciate your advise, but Nandroid is there for a reason.
Is there anyone who can please help me what to do best? I mean, one of those Nandroid-partitions holds the clue, right?
I am also facing overnight Batterydrain of about 30% (from 80 to 50 in about 7-7,5 hours).
No Nandroid specialists in the house?
You need to wipe your data. Use Swift to backup apps, messages and call logs. Google will do it's best to restore settings upon setup. Your problem is almost guaranteed to be in data. If you need that data, I would recommend going back to whatever version of pie you were on before. Swift won't restore app permissions, as far as I know so be sure to double check if you restore apps with Swift.
Please advise. I really **Really** want to be sure that if I try to backup my sister's phone that I do it properly and can fully and cleanly restore it to a new ROM with no issue. (Be sure that I'll also do external backups of Photos and SMS/MMS databases and whatever else possible onto a computer first, in case of data loss or if I screw up.)
---
Okay, so here's the situation: (Google Pixel 6 Pro)
So I installed a custom ROM on my sisters brand new phone a couple of months back. Problem is, the dev behind said ROM may stop maintaining it due to personal reasons. I'll need to in this case switch her phone to another ROM, so that she continues to receive security updates. By the sounds of it I have to wipe the phone completely when switching ROMs, including the user partition. (Correct me if wrong.)
I'm still fairly new to the custom ROM/unlocked bootloader world, so I wanted to kindly ask around for advice on how to **Properly** backup her phone in such a way that I can later fully restore her photos, SMS/MMS, apps, etc. more or less as though I never switched ROMs on her.
I've already heard of TWRP, but the phone doesn't have a version for it. I also heard about the promising Migrate app posted here. Last but not least is the ADB backup feature--however I also heard some conflicting information suggesting that of late Google is deprecating that feature and making it useless. (Please correct if wrong.) I'm still fairly new to the whole custom ROM scene (and rooting too, but in this case her phone is unrooted, only bootloader unlocked with a custom ROM).
Rule #1 - if a OS is fast, stable and fulfilling it's mission... let it be! Updates can and do break things. Pie and higher are relatively secure unless you do stupid things. This stock, optimized N10+ is still running on Pie; last update >2.5 years, current load is over 2 yo. Still fast, stable and secure. I spend very little time doing maintenance and this load runs like a bat out of hell. What's not to like?
If you have to reload latter so be it. Don't go looking for trouble by messing with firmware unless you absolutely need to. Taking a more conservative approach will save you time and trouble in the long run. Google doesn't care about your time or the trouble their updates cause you.
ruq said:
Please advise. I really **Really** want to be sure that if I try to backup my sister's phone that I do it properly and can fully and cleanly restore it to a new ROM with no issue. (Be sure that I'll also do external backups of Photos and SMS/MMS databases and whatever else possible onto a computer first, in case of data loss or if I screw up.)
---
Okay, so here's the situation: (Google Pixel 6 Pro)
So I installed a custom ROM on my sisters brand new phone a couple of months back. Problem is, the dev behind said ROM may stop maintaining it due to personal reasons. I'll need to in this case switch her phone to another ROM, so that she continues to receive security updates. By the sounds of it I have to wipe the phone completely when switching ROMs, including the user partition. (Correct me if wrong.)
I'm still fairly new to the custom ROM/unlocked bootloader world, so I wanted to kindly ask around for advice on how to **Properly** backup her phone in such a way that I can later fully restore her photos, SMS/MMS, apps, etc. more or less as though I never switched ROMs on her.
I've already heard of TWRP, but the phone doesn't have a version for it. I also heard about the promising Migrate app posted here. Last but not least is the ADB backup feature--however I also heard some conflicting information suggesting that of late Google is deprecating that feature and making it useless. (Please correct if wrong.) I'm still fairly new to the whole custom ROM scene (and rooting too, but in this case her phone is unrooted, only bootloader unlocked with a custom ROM).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There should be no reason to need to wipe user partition. It should only be necessary to, at most, wipe the system partition(stock ROM), data partition(user installed apps and user settings), cache partition and dalvik/ART cache then flash the ROM. These wipes will wipe system data, your user settings, user installed apps and their corresponding app data. These wipes will not wipe data/media, the partition where your photos, videos, downloaded files, etc.. are stored.
You can backup the app data for the user installed apps by connecting to PC then use the PC file manager to open your device's internal storage, go to the Android/data folder, in that folder is all of your user app data. Copy the Android/data folder to your PC. After you install your ROM, reinstall all of the user apps that were installed then you can connect to PC and then copy your backed up Android/data folder over to your device to overwrite the ROMs existing Android/data folder. This will restore your app data for your user installed apps.
Contacts should be backed up to Google and restored when signing into the device after the new ROM boots and re-syncing the device.
You will need to backup your SMS/MMS texts via a separate method. Just do a search for:
"Backup and Restore SMS android"
That should find several methods. Use a method that you are comfortable with.
If you use WhatsApp, backing up and restoring WhatsApp, WhatsApp account and your WhatsApp messages requires it's own specific method. You can find the method by doing a search for:
"Backup and restore WhatsApp"
Sorry, if I knew its specific method, I would explain it.
Is there anything else that you don't want to risk losing or anything specific that is on your device that you 100% absolutely need to be certain gets retained/restored after the update?
What custom ROM are you coming from and what ROM are you going to? Depending on the ROMs in question, you might be able to dirty flash the ROM.