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Excuse me if this has been covered before, but is there a way to backup the device in a way, that if i root it, and then flash some ROM to it, and i mess up or just want to go back to my previous state?
I read something about nandroid? But in order for me to do that, i need root. Correct? so, what if i want to "unroot" my device? and is nandroid suitable for the Desire?
What does nandroid actually do? Does it back up everything?
nandroid makes images of all of the disk, so it's a full backup, but it's having issues restoring those backups to the Desire at the moment. And yes, you'll need to at least get to the recovery menu to run nandroid for now.
The only other route of which I know is just backing up apps and data, and you can use Titanium Backup for that (or MyBackup, I think). Without root, when you restore the apps, you won't be able to tell the Market you have these things installed, though. Doing that still requires you to fully reflash and do some setup, though. I don't think there's a cut-and-dry backup and full restore method at the moment. If there is, I'd certainly be interested...
I am also in the hunt for a good backup application. Dont mind paying as long as work as it should. But i dont think there is any backup application that can backup applications (most of them maybe just supported some limited apps).
kuailan said:
I am also in the hunt for a good backup application. Dont mind paying as long as work as it should. But i dont think there is any backup application that can backup applications (most of them maybe just supported some limited apps).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium Backup will back up everything that's on your phone except for apps installed by the system (and those it'll try and backup if you're rooted). It's worked flawlessly for me.
The Professor said:
Titanium Backup will back up everything that's on your phone except for apps installed by the system (and those it'll try and backup if you're rooted). It's worked flawlessly for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am trying Titanium now at the moment....just wondering I have seen a lot of application backup options/lists?? but where is the options to backup SMS, contacts, etc?? I find the UI is a little complex.
So is the best way of doing it.. Backup.. Copy folder to pc...
Then when i wanna restore.. Install titanium. copy license and folder back?
kuailan said:
I am trying Titanium now at the moment....just wondering I have seen a lot of application backup options/lists?? but where is the options to backup SMS, contacts, etc?? I find the UI is a little complex.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium backup only does apps.
Personally I use MyBackup, it backs up settings, sms, calender, home screens, settings e.t.c. as well as apps and keeps market links intact.
Well worth the money.
Ive got both now lol! have to wait till i install a new rom.. ill try mybackup first then
abc27 said:
Titanium backup only does apps.
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Oh, RLY?
Official Titanium Backup site says otherwise.
http://www.matrixrewriter.com/android/
Features of the Free version:
No time limit
Very fast app listing (~1 second for 300 apps)
Sort apps by name / last backup / backup frequency
Filter apps by name / type / status / Apps Organizer labels (also affects Batch operations)
Backup/restore regular apps + their settings
Backup/restore protected apps + their settings
Backup/restore system settings (incl. Wi-Fi AP list)
Restores the Market links when restoring apps
Zero-click background batch backup
Interactive batch restore
Many batch scenarios (eg: if more than N days since last backup, etc)
Zero-click app un-installer
Zero-click system app un-installer
Desktop widgets
Additional features of the Donate version:
Branding to your name
Multiple backups per app (history length can be chosen)
Zero-click background batch restore
Batch verification of all backups
Ultra fast HyperShell (much faster for almost everything)
Market Doctor can remake any broken Market links (only for apps that were backed up with the link in place)
App freezer can disable an app (and make it invisible) without un-installing it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just moved from one ROM to another smoothly with Titanium. I recommend it.
How to Backup you Desire before rooting it ?
Titanium requires Rooted phone ......
other Appli ?
You can try Sprite Backup but no application will work that well without root, sorry.
Is anybody test Sprite Backup?
I think MyBackup Pro and Titanium are similar when you have the system app active.
Hi
barring rooting the device and doing a nand backup/restore, I have used Sprite Backup in the past on my diamond (XDAndroid) successfully and it u could also use the application backup/restore with Astro (from the marketplace) and for txt msgs use sms backup -
http://github.com/jberkel/android-sms/tree/restore_backups - Backup/restore to gmail account
Hi!
I was a winmo user (samsung omnia) and I flashed the damn thing regularly, I mean like every week. So I had to reinstall everything from scratch. I don't want to be caught in that loop again, so I am asking you if it is possible to backup all my programs, data and settings and then just apply them after the flash.
Thank you very much, proud Legend user!
Backup contacts : hmm, you don't really have to do this, if you save your contacts on Google account, everytime you login to Google account on your phone, Contact list will be auto appear in People, even avatar pictures.
Apps : Use Astro File Manager to backup all apps in your phone, then flash another ROM, go to market to install Astro again, then backup apps from SD card.
Settings : hmm, I'm not sure you should do this, because everyrom is different, restore settings on this ROM to another ROM may damage your android. But you can always try Titanium Backup on Market.
Thanks! I am still wondering if I should flash because froyo is knocking on our doors.
slovenec88 said:
Thanks! I am still wondering if I should flash because froyo is knocking on our doors.
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Yeah froyo is really close, right after the desire the EVO 4G got its OTA.
So I'm expecting the update within 14days I would say a week but that might be to optimistic.
source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/02/evo-4g-starts-getting-android-2-2-update-over-the-air/
You can def.ly try Titanium Backup to get all your Apps + data backed up. You can also try My back up pro to back up your SMS and MMS along with your call log, Alarm and other application. With my back up pro you can back up to the SD card or online....
Titanium Backup requires root. You can also use MyBackup pro. You can use been root (with more features) or not been root (only backups apps, but not settings, what is not so good)
You can also use ROM Manager (free in the Market) to backup you full ROM and configuration: it will backup everything on SD Card (except your SD card and you can quickly recover old ROMs with full confuration and apps.
So le me get this straight, with rom manager I will be able to back up the entire Rom... cause if something goes wrong and can not update a newer rom, I can always go and choose my previous rom for the recovery screen....
Caifan09 said:
So le me get this straight, with rom manager I will be able to back up the entire Rom... cause if something goes wrong and can not update a newer rom, I can always go and choose my previous rom for the recovery screen....
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Click to collapse
Yes, and everything will be exactly as in the moment you did de ROM backup. It is like a full hard disk image in a PC.
But, consider this:
With ROM Manager, you can have as many backups as you want and you can recover any one of them. BUT, you need to be able to boot your Legend to be able to launch ROM Manager (because ROM Manager is an application)
So, if you meet problems starting up a new ROM, you will need to load any rooted working ROM to be able to start up and launch ROM Manager (need to be rooted to be able to run ROM Manager).
As far as I know, if you use a ROM with A2SD feature, apps will be stored in the EXT3 partition of the SD card, and those apps WILL NOT BE INCLUDED IN BACKUP. So, if apps stored in the EXT3 partition changed, you will need to recover those apps with Titatium Backup.
There is another way to do a full backup called NANDROID, but I do not like it so much:
power off Legend, push "Back" bottom and Power On, select BOOTLOADER, select RECOVERY, connect USB cable to your PC, run "recovery-windows.bat" from your PC (from the same directory you used to root your Legend) and you will be able to select NANDROID BACKUP.
With NADONDROID BACKUP you can do also a full ROM backup, but you can store and recover only ONE backup/last backup. In addition, you need a PC to be able to run it. So, that is not very nice.
ok i see... thanks for the info....
I realize this is a bit of a noob question but I've tried to flash cm rc1 about 6 times now, and every time I've experienced problems trying to restore my apps and settings.
Every time I tried, I started by doing a nandroid backup and wiping before flashing rc1, and I could boot with no problems. However, the first time I did this, the first thing I did was flash gapps and then waited half an hour for most of my downloaded apps to be restored automatically, but none of my settings or contacts came back.
Tried reflashing rc1 again but this time didn't flash gapps yet, instead went to advanced restore options in nandroid and restored only my data, which did the trick, except when I flashed gapps after I got the error where at setup you're supposed to "touch android to begin" and it doesn't do anything. Thought I'd nearly bricked my phone cause I couldn't exit the screen or get into recovery! Eventually managed to restore azure.
Going to try now restoring from my titanium backups and THEN flashing gapps, so hoping this is the best way to do it.
EDIT: Oh yeah so here's actually the main problem/question: I have most of my apps on sd (froyo apps2sd) and have backups made from titanium and a nandroid backup obviously. I want to have all my current apps and settings restored to the rc so that everything is more or less exactly as it is the way I use it now. Is this possible? Or will titanium restore my apps to internal memory?
Okay, so after restoring from titanium and flashing gapps I STILL don't have half of my apps or any of my contacts! What am I doing wrong??
Is there a series of steps you guys follow when migrating everything from one rom to another?
Make sure to enable App2sd in the Cyanogen Application Settings before running the Titanium restore. Also check Titanium Backups's Settings (press Menu button). There is an option to enforce the same location (SD/Internal). Not sure if it helps though.
I am not running an English version so you might have to search for the options.
Your contacts should be stored on your google Account if you had syncing activated.
Check Settings -> Account & Sync (or something like this) and add your google account if it is not already there. After that click the option to sync contacts.
If your contacts wheren't synced try restoring with Titanium again. The files you are looking for are "com.android.providers.contacts-***.tar.gz" and "com.android.providers.contacts-***.properties" NOT ""com.android.contacts-***."
If nothing helps you could always restorer you nandroid backup -> Titanium backup all apps that are NOT moved to SD -> uninstall all apps that are not moved to SD to make some room and move every app on the sd card to your internal storage before running another Titanium backup to have all apps as internal-storage versions. While you are at it you can sync your contacts with your google account and export them to SD for two options to restore them later.
Batch backup system and user apps+data. Then verify that backup to see everything is backed up successfully. For contacts either sync to Google account or you can export your contacts to SD, which I prefer personally. Full wipe, install Titanium, restore. End of story.
Oi rajasetan, can titanium do quiet restore?
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
Thanks denisman, I did actually follow all of those steps and still had problems.. titanium didn't restore my contacts and even though they were synced with google for some reason they never came back, so I took your advice and exported my contacts to sd and will try again. Strange that between google sync and full backup and full restore of apps through titanium I still couldn't restore all my previous settings. Doing a nandroid advanced restore of data was the best option, if only I could do so without getting the error when flashing gapps. Maybe I should flash gapps and THEN nandroid restore data?
rajasyaitan said:
Batch backup system and user apps+data. Then verify that backup to see everything is backed up successfully. For contacts either sync to Google account or you can export your contacts to SD, which I prefer personally. Full wipe, install Titanium, restore. End of story.
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Click to collapse
That's how I've been doing it actually, although I don't have the paid version of titanium so I can't verify my backups. Will upgrade to paid version and try that, thanks.
Update:
Okay so this time I flashed gapps first and THEN used nandroid to restore just my data and that did the trick; contacts, settings and apps are all back the way they should be.
New issue though (I seem plagued by these)! Even though I have the exact same stuff installed, I have only 3mb free on internal memory (even after using adb shell to remove carhome, twitter and other system apps I didn't need) when I used to have 40mb free before. Is cm6.1 that much larger than azure or do I have unnecessary copies of files sitting around somewhere I can't see them?
In titanium settings you need to check "force install to same location", then any apps you used to have on your SD card will stay there.
So,
now that the first usable ROMs for X8 pop up i am wondering: what is the easiest way to import all your settings to a new ROM?
i am thinking of Apps, App-Settings, Sync-Settings (gmail, Roadsync..), SMS, Mails etc etc...
Restoring/Setting this up manually after every installation of a new ROM takes some time.
What is your trick for the lazy people?
How much can be backed up with Titanium Backup? I'm still not sure about this.
What other Apps can you recommend?
update: found a solution at lifehacker today.
Non of them will work when going from ROM to ROM. When you go to a new ROM, you should backup the previous one so you can go back to the default when there is a problems with the Custom ROM.
Basically, you can't transfer apps or anything from one ROM to another. You will have to manually install them yourself, take a list of them and download/install again. I wish it could work but it cant ):
Too bad.
Ok, I cant backup apps this way.
Is there a way or script to automatically install apps (apks) from a folder on sdcard?
Maybe I could use AppBrain to sync apps.
But how about System Settings, Accounts...
Hm, actually come to think of it .. If your phone is rooted (obviously is lol) you can go to Root Explorer or any root application manager, go to System>App and if you can transfer them to your SD card, I use Root Explorer, just select all and zip them, then transfer to SD card .. All the .apk's will be in the zip file. I suppose just install one by one
As for system settings, accounts etc. those can't be backed up .. You'll just have to be updated manually :L Don't be lazy haha
just found this tip from lifehacker using titanium backup. looks pretty convinient.
if someone tries this, please report if you have success.
laureus said:
just found this tip from lifehacker using titanium backup. looks pretty convinient.
if someone tries this, please report if you have success.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use this, for me it's the best way.
Titanium backup can store all your current apps and data settings for theseapps, too.
After flashing your new ROM, install Titanium backup and restore your backuped apps. Works fine.
Is it even possible, when changing from 1 build of android to another entirely different build, to transfer my installed apps, accounts etc? or will I have to go back and redownload/buy my apps again?
Bought apps do not need to be rebought on the market place, you simply install them.
If you have CWM installed, then simply go into backup and restore, backup, then flash your new rom, then go into backup and restore again, advanced restore and select data only. For accounts, it's not hard to just renter them is it?
I use Titanium Backup it works great