Database Users

Pay Attention: How do we backup DATA in Apps. NOT just APPS

Title says it all. I've seen this question asked but too many times I see people saying. "Use Search Function"
The search function has been scoured and I see plenty of great apps that restore and backup apps, contacts, etc.. none restore data WITHIN the apps.
Is there an app that backs up DATA within the apps not just the apps.
Thank you,
come again.

Titanium backup backs up my apps plus all system data

I'd like to know this too, with possible Rom coming in September I'm desperate to make the change over as smooth as possible.

post in general section

Mooved

Good question. I use MyBackup (online) for saving my data - but only sms-contacts..
If you find an app that save all you need, please post its name here ^^
thx

The process is quite complex (at least the way I do it) but it can be done!
Note: YOU NEED LINUX FOR THIS (or if you're brave you can mess with the tools on this site: http://www.chrysocome.net/download. success is not guaranteed. Still post about your experiences though )
Note: Steps 1 to 3 are not always necessary, it depends on which Android build you are using.
1) Give Root Explorer (or a similar file explorer app - must be able to access system/data files) root access
2) Locate the folders containing the user data you want to backup, this is usually somewhere near /data/data. The folders have various naming conventions and dont always contain the name of the app (i'll check and edit this post if i have time)
3) Change the folder's permission settings - I usually just permit everything
4) Shut down Android and in one way or another, mount your sd card on your Linux machine, and locate your data.img or userdata.img file.
5) Open a command line window, enter the following:
Code:
sudo mount -o loop data.img /mnt/data
Note: you might need to create the folder you are mounting too
Note: sudo not always neccesary
Note: change data.img to userdata.img, you'll know if this applies to you
6) Browse to the folder containing the data you want to backup and copy it onto your computer. DONE!
You can restore these backups on a different build by using the same method, just in reverse. Also, don't forget to check if the same folder already exists, if yes, it can be extremely annoying to find you dont have permission to change/overwrite it!
I used this to copy all of my saved games, i especially didn't want to loose my Asphalt 5 progress
P.S. if this solves your problem, please change the title of this thread to simplify things for other users

Thanks Kev007, I'll try this

filou75 said:
Thanks Kev007, I'll try this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While it is good to know how to do this stuff, just download Titanium from the market. It backs up all apps plus data in about a minute. You can restore individually or in batches using filters. Search around there is lots of info on this app.
It is great to learn some basic Linux stuff. It will help when you are trying to do things in Android. If you have no intention of learning Linux, Titanium is the way to go.

that be good actually - on my last android reinstall I lost my paper toss high score (allbeit only 3 pmsl) but still seems like a good thought considerin the games etc with save data.

Seconded - Titanium Backup preserves all my app data.
This is one of the reasons I love Android over WinMo - backing up app data is practically a nobrainer when you have the right tool.

+1 on Titanium Backup.
Works great on all builds. Just don't try to restore native HTC apps/data from sense to vanilla Froyo.

Kev007 said:
The process is quite complex (at least the way I do it) but it can be done!
Note: YOU NEED LINUX FOR THIS (or if you're brave you can mess with the tools on this site: http://www.chrysocome.net/download. success is not guaranteed. Still post about your experiences though )
Note: Steps 1 to 3 are not always necessary, it depends on which Android build you are using.
1) Give Root Explorer (or a similar file explorer app - must be able to access system/data files) root access
2) Locate the folders containing the user data you want to backup, this is usually somewhere near /data/data. The folders have various naming conventions and dont always contain the name of the app (i'll check and edit this post if i have time)
3) Change the folder's permission settings - I usually just permit everything
4) Shut down Android and in one way or another, mount your sd card on your Linux machine, and locate your data.img or userdata.img file.
5) Open a command line window, enter the following:
Code:
sudo mount -o loop data.img /mnt/data
Note: you might need to create the folder you are mounting too
Note: sudo not always neccesary
Note: change data.img to userdata.img, you'll know if this applies to you
6) Browse to the folder containing the data you want to backup and copy it onto your computer. DONE!
You can restore these backups on a different build by using the same method, just in reverse. Also, don't forget to check if the same folder already exists, if yes, it can be extremely annoying to find you dont have permission to change/overwrite it!
I used this to copy all of my saved games, i especially didn't want to loose my Asphalt 5 progress
P.S. if this solves your problem, please change the title of this thread to simplify things for other users
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now THIS is an answer. I knew I wasnt the only one trying to do this. I dont need to backup the APPS because I already have them backed up oin my PC.
My buddy has a linux box ill try this with. Thanks.
PS. To the titanium suggestions. I've tried that. Doesnt seem to save game states or 3rd party app preferences...

Transforming a Nandroid Backup to a flashable zip via clockwork recovery?

I have a friend over on the east coast that isnt following direction as well as one would hope and is a little scared about rooting his phone and getting it to be as good as my X is. I finally got it rooted for him but he is freaking out about using a clean nandroid backup i sent him and dumping it in the correct directory for nandroid backup and restore giving him a clean image of my phone...
I had assumed that this would have been the easiest method but it got me thinking.
Could i rename my nandroid back up folder the ending tree folder that holds the .android_secure.img, cache.img, data.img, nandroid.md5 and system.img ... like clockworkmod/backup/2010-11-25.05.05.13 could i just pop all those files into a .zip named whatever and direct him to clockwork recovery and flash zip from sd card?
Or could someone point me into a direction on how to accomplish that? I think i would like to also do it for my self and upload it to my dropbox account for later access or to share with friends.
I noticed when i opened like the latest rubix rom that it didnt contain any files similar to that so im curious if its possible.
Also one last question, while i have your technicle mind at attention..
Could someone answer me, in Titanium backup it gives you the option to create a update.zip, then it gives you two radio buttons one says titanium backup will be installed as user application and then System application.
I know that the whole create update.zip thing is for flashing it to the rom from recovery. But what is the diffrence bewteen those two options. What is best and what is the diffrence..
Thanks for letting me pick your Brains!

One drawback of giving him your nandroid backup is that it contains YOUR gmail account with your contacts, facebook account (if applicable), among all other sorts of your personal stuff. In my past experience, you can ADD a gmail account to the phone, but you cannot get rid of the primary/original account so he will have both on there. Other than that, it actually does work though (at least it did on the Droid 1).

Wipe your data and make a nandroid before you reboot and sign in. that way your accounts won't be tied to it
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Your friend - with all due respect if he's having that much trouble with something this simple I really don't think he should be screwing around with root access in the first place. If he has that little understanding of administrator-level access, why on earth does he even want root? He won't even know what to do with it.
Not trying to be harsh, just trying to understand.
Flash Nandroid - NO, don't do it! I'm sure it can be done, but not in the way you described.
Titanium Backup - system apps reside in /system/app as opposed to /data/app. The only real difference is that system apps will still be there after you do a factory reset.

If your going to let your friend flash a nandroid, then you need to remove your gmail and social applications. If you wipe data as mentioned above you'll lose all non-system apps...basically everything you've installed and set up, which is most likely what you're trying to give him. The only way I can think to make this work is to first create a backup for your use, then remove everything that requires you to log in with adb, then replace all of the apps you removed (extract the rom your running and look in system/app for them - data/app apps can be installed from the market). Reboot the phone to verify that all of your accounts are gone, create the new backup and send it to him. Then flash the backup you made for your use.
The easiest way to give him "your set up" would probably be to make a full backup with titanium (not an update.zip). Backup all user apps and system data. Go into the titanium folder on your sd card and delete all files except the .apk files that have anything to do with gmail or social apps. Have him flash the same rom, copy your titanium file to his sd card, and restore all apps and system data to his phone.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

[App idea] Restore Titanium backups by update.zip

i have a great idea for an app to scan your titanium backup folder, and create an update.zip to restore all apps and data after a rom flash.
i have all the details worked out!
i know how to convert the tibu backups to useable restoreable data!
though its not hard.
this could easily be done through a script on pc or possibly through an app.
but i am just not a programmer, in either regard.
need experience with:
creating cwm 2 and 3 flashable zips (edify and scriptify)
possibly other scripting for editing install directory
unpacking tar zip and gz files
creating UI would be nice as well for whichever platform it ends up on pc or app
PM me for more details.
this would be a great tool!

As far as I know, each Titanium backup has 3 files - one bzip2 for the APK, one for the data, and a "properties" file, which containt the market link, app install location, backup date etc...
I think it is possible to write an extention to ClockworkMod/Amon-Ra for restoring Titanium backups. Don't count on me to do it, I don't have any experience with the Linux kernel/Android custom recoveries.
As for a desktop/dalvik application, it should be very simple to pack the backup into a flashable .zip, I'll try to do such an app soon.

Nvm ignore me...
From something awesome

May this help? I'd really like such an app!
http://www.apps-builder.com/en/home

The paid version of the app will do this for you. Also let's you decide whether the. Zip is signed or not. Hope this helps.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

i have the paid version and that zip file that it creates only reinstalls titanium backup not all your apps.
so no it doesnt help. i already have the paid version, and understand the features in full.

Thats what my nvm ignore me was about... i thought that update.zip did the apps as well.
Anyway this would be awesome for people who flash a lot of roms
TRusselo said:
i have the paid version and that zip file that it creates only reinstalls titanium backup not all your apps.
so no it doesnt help. i already have the paid version, and understand the features in full.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From something awesome

Kick me while I'm down, I thought the Pro Version did that as well. The file it makes certainly looks big enough. I haven't taken a look at it. But my question is how is the update.zip, which I can't get to install, different from just reinstalling the .apks, which is how I get it working in the first place?

TRusselo said:
i have a great idea for an app to scan your titanium backup folder, and create an update.zip to restore all apps and data after a rom flash.
i have all the details worked out!
i know how to convert the tibu backups to useable restoreable data!
though its not hard.
this could easily be done through a script on pc or possibly through an app.
but i am just not a programmer, in either regard.
need experience with:
creating cwm 2 and 3 flashable zips (edify and scriptify)
possibly other scripting for editing install directory
unpacking tar zip and gz files
creating UI would be nice as well for whichever platform it ends up on pc or app
PM me for more details.
this would be a great tool!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea but I think you will run into problems if you restore from recovery... I don't think app ID's (and therefore permissions) will be correct and I don't think the apps will re-link to the market (if the id's aren't correct).
Running the fix permissions script after the restore might solve this.
But, other than selective restore, what benefit would this method have over say simply restoring the /data partition part of your nandroid backup?
Nevertheless, if you need help with updater-scripts send me a PM. If my concerns are unfounded then this is a worthwhile idea.

Cant delete CWM backups from internal SD Card

Need some help here:
I need to delete some of the backups I made with CWM recovery. I already have them backed up onto my PC, but need to delete them to make some room. For some reason I cant.
Ive tried root explorer, es file explorer, and my PC. Im unable to change the permissions of the files, and if you look at the pics I attached youll see they have some strange permissions, but I cant change them.
I am able to move the files anywhere else in the sd card folder, rename them, but no matter what I cant delete them. And when I try from my PC it shows them disappear, but they are actually still there.
If there is a way to format the sd card folder I will, but thats not an option in the settings, or CWM. Can someone please help me out here? This is really frustrating me. Thanks

No issues here when I delete backups using ROM Toolbox.

UnknownFearNG said:
No issues here when I delete backups using ROM Toolbox.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried through ROM Toolbox and still couldnt delete them.

Gam3r 4 Life said:
I tried through ROM Toolbox and still couldnt delete them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, tried with multiple apps too.

I posted this in the other thread, but figured I would do so here in case other people needed the "fix".
Ok, so some good news and some bad news.
The good news is, I was able to put together a flashable zip that WILL DELETE the entire CWM backup directory from the sdcard. It is available here:
http://core.routed.com/CWM_Backup_Wipe.zip
You simply need to flash it via CWM. Easy peasy. I confirmed that the directory/files were all removed, AND the storage space is now available for other files (I checked df before and after).
The bad news is, before attempting to delete the directory, I first tried changing the permissions (recursively) to see if that was a better "fix" for this problem. Unfortunately, even with the directory 777 and the files 666, I still could not manually delete them through the system. Which means, whatever bug is causing this problem is much more severe than a file/directory permission thing.
In any case, until the CWM developer can figure out a way to fix this bug, at least we have a way to manually remove the backups and get our storage space back.
The script in the zip is very simple. It just does a recursive delete on /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup.
Enjoy!

phonic said:
I posted this in the other thread, but figured I would do so here in case other people needed the "fix".
Ok, so some good news and some bad news.
The good news is, I was able to put together a flashable zip that WILL DELETE the entire CWM backup directory from the sdcard. It is available here:
http://core.routed.com/CWM_Backup_Wipe.zip
You simply need to flash it via CWM. Easy peasy. I confirmed that the directory/files were all removed, AND the storage space is now available for other files (I checked df before and after).
The bad news is, before attempting to delete the directory, I first tried changing the permissions (recursively) to see if that was a better "fix" for this problem. Unfortunately, even with the directory 777 and the files 666, I still could not manually delete them through the system. Which means, whatever bug is causing this problem is much more severe than a file/directory permission thing.
In any case, until the CWM developer can figure out a way to fix this bug, at least we have a way to manually remove the backups and get our storage space back.
The script in the zip is very simple. It just does a recursive delete on /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup.
Enjoy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just saying thanks for this, I hope they figure a fix out soon. Flash worked perfectly, for some storage space back. :good:

Can't Modify SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA.apk

Background: Really not loving the default New Contact icons and the random colors. Should be easy enough to change. What I tried (and failed miserably...)
MODest ROM 11 (Twiz/stock 6.01-based)
Flashpoint 5 Kernel
Copied SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA.apk from
/system/priv-app/SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA/
to my Win7 PC.
Used 7-Zip to unpack the file to a temporary folder.
Found the .qmg files I didn't like.
Found a .qmg that would be a passable replacement for the ones I didn't dig.
Made 11 copies of that image in a working folder.
Renamed each copy to the exact name of each of the 11 files I wanted to replace.
Dragged those 11 files back into the open .apk in 7-Zip
On the Phone, in Root Explorer:
Made a copy of SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA.apk in the same folder:
/system/priv-app/SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA/
deleted the original
Copied my mod'd apk back into this folder and set the perms.
Rebooted.
No Phone or Contacts on home screen or in Apps
Tried to 'install' the apk from Root Explorer.
Wouldn't install
Tried to delete cache & Dalvik from TWRP.
No Joy.
Tried to do a partial Nandroid restore of Contacts and sec.phone from Titanium (nothing there called /systempriv-app/SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA)
No Joy.
Nandroid restore from TWRP.
Back to normal.
Okay, what did I do wrong, and how can I change the icons?
Should I have used APKTook instead of 7-Zip, created a new signature, etc?
Should my mod'd apk somehow be flashed from recovery rather than copied to a system folder?
Is this some perverted Samsung-ism that would have worked fine on any other phone on the planet?
Thanks for reading.

ForestCat said:
Background: Really not loving the default New Contact icons and the random colors. Should be easy enough to change. What I tried (and failed miserably...)
MODest ROM 11 (Twiz/stock 6.01-based)
Flashpoint 5 Kernel
Copied SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA.apk from
/system/priv-app/SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA/
to my Win7 PC.
Used 7-Zip to unpack the file to a temporary folder.
Found the .qmg files I didn't like.
Found a .qmg that would be a passable replacement for the ones I didn't dig.
Made 11 copies of that image in a working folder.
Renamed each copy to the exact name of each of the 11 files I wanted to replace.
Dragged those 11 files back into the open .apk in 7-Zip
On the Phone, in Root Explorer:
Made a copy of SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA.apk in the same folder:
/system/priv-app/SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA/
deleted the original
Copied my mod'd apk back into this folder and set the perms.
Rebooted.
No Phone or Contacts on home screen or in Apps
Tried to 'install' the apk from Root Explorer.
Wouldn't install
Tried to delete cache & Dalvik from TWRP.
No Joy.
Tried to do a partial Nandroid restore of Contacts and sec.phone from Titanium (nothing there called /systempriv-app/SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA)
No Joy.
Nandroid restore from TWRP.
Back to normal.
Okay, what did I do wrong, and how can I change the icons?
Should I have used APKTook instead of 7-Zip, created a new signature, etc?
Should my mod'd apk somehow be flashed from recovery rather than copied to a system folder?
Is this some perverted Samsung-ism that would have worked fine on any other phone on the planet?
Thanks for reading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That apk took me a long time to figure out too. It's one of the apps you I had to modify for multi dpi. The only way I know of is to change the compression when you're putting the app back together and even then it took a couple tries. There's probably a better way but the compression change seems to work well enough.
I don't know if 7-zip has this option, but with winrar you can change the compression to "store". You should know right away whether or not it worked. You'll see the little phone icon in the bottom left of the lock screen. You may still have to do a factory reset to see your changes (probably not though) but the app should work without it.
By the way, you can swap those image files for .png files if you'd like. Just delete the corresponding .qmg or .pio file.
I saw your post in the rom thread about theming TouchWiz. You should check out @supergrobi94's theming threads. He's put together an impressive collection of options for 6.0.1 and 5.1.1 and there's also a [how to] section that uses the vrtheme zip that will modify the res folder of a specific app without having to break it down. I'm not sure how active he is these days but he's always been very helpful with requests and questions in the past if you need it.
Supergrobi94's theming threads:
This one has all the themes
This is the [how to] thread

kevintm78 said:
That apk took me a long time to figure out too. It's one of the apps you I had to modify for multi dpi. The only way I know of is to change the compression when you're putting the app back together and even then it took a couple tries. There's probably a better way but the compression change seems to work well enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, that makes perfect sense. But I'd never have figured it out myself, lol.
I'll dig into those theming threads, thanks.
kevintm78 said:
☆☆Edge Panel for ModestRom v11☆☆
DOWNLOAD-This will change your Contacts app to the S6 version and the IncallUI app to the Note 7 version because the people stripe will not work with the N4 contacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, this is from the MODest ROM thread, but I think it's germain here.
SO.....
If I want to 'try out' that Edge Panel, is there a way to revert back to the stock apps in question other than restoring a nandroid backup or re-flashing the ROM?
I ask because I'm thinking that, at least in the case of the Note 4 and its well known memory problems, 'bulk' memory writes like ROMs, nandroid retores, etc., stress the device, so I'm trying not to do it more than I have to.
During my last episode(see above) putting the stock apk back in its original folder didn't work.
Is there a standard procedure for either android generically, or touchwiz specifically, for safely reverting back to the stock system apps after experimenting w/ custom stuff?
EDIT: Just tried something. In Root Explorer, went into:
/system/priv-app/SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA/
and simply renamed the .apk to .foo
Rebooted.
No Contacts, as expected, but no Phone either??? Not sure why.
Anyway, back into Root Explorer.
Rename .foo back to .apk
Reboot.
Still no Contacts or Phone, so something bigger at work here.
Before I have to restore Nandroid anyway (unless there's a better way???),
I flashed your EdgePanel.zip in TWRP to see if it would restore the Phone/Contacts apps.
Wiped the cache. Reboot.
Edge Panel is now there, but still no Phone or Contacts. WTF???
Last resort-TWRP- Factory Reset.
Now the Contacts/Phone are back (and all my other stuff is gone, lol)
So is whacking the Data a necessity here?
If so, it makes trying out things related to the phone/contacts a LOT more tedious...
Any workaround???
Thanks again.

ForestCat said:
OK, this is from the MODest ROM thread, but I think it's germain here.
SO.....
If I want to 'try out' that Edge Panel, is there a way to revert back to the stock apps in question other than restoring a nandroid backup or re-flashing the ROM?
I ask because I'm thinking that, at least in the case of the Note 4 and its well known memory problems, 'bulk' memory writes like ROMs, nandroid retores, etc., stress the device, so I'm trying not to do it more than I have to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it doesn't look like I ever made an easy way to go back. I had thought I did but I'm either overlooking it or it's not there. Feel free to rifle through my androidfilehost folders if you want to double check. All of my stuff is very organized so it could be buried in there somewhere.
If you still need a recovery zip let me know and I'll get one together. I'm actually going to make one anyway but if you need it right away I can get on it. I didn't realize that there wasn't a way back to stock.
ForestCat said:
During my last episode(see above) putting the stock apk back in its original folder didn't work.
Is there a standard procedure for either android generically, or touchwiz specifically, for safely reverting back to the stock system apps after experimenting w/ custom stuff?
EDIT: Just tried something. In Root Explorer, went into:
/system/priv-app/SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA/
and simply renamed the .apk to .foo
Rebooted.
No Contacts, as expected, but no Phone either??? Not sure why.
Anyway, back into Root Explorer.
Rename .foo back to .apk
Reboot.
Still no Contacts or Phone, so something bigger at work here.
Before I have to restore Nandroid anyway (unless there's a better way???),
I flashed your EdgePanel.zip in TWRP to see if it would restore the Phone/Contacts apps.
Wiped the cache. Reboot.
Edge Panel is now there, but still no Phone or Contacts. WTF???
Last resort-TWRP- Factory Reset.
Now the Contacts/Phone are back (and all my other stuff is gone, lol)
So is whacking the Data a necessity here?
If so, it makes trying out things related to the phone/contacts a LOT more tedious...
Any workaround???
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is strange that they are not coming back. You may just want to double check your permissions and that there isn't two of the same apps in your folder. At the time of making that Edge zip I was still using other programs to make zips for me and the major downside to that is having to name the new apps the exact same as the old so it would get overwritten so if it doesn't match you'll end up with two active apps in one folder.
Now I think the best way to do that is to use a binary script (osm0sis has great tutorials for this) to change the app getting replaced to a .bak file and then just copy the new app to the system, set perms, and reboot (dalvik cache/ cache needs to be wiped if it's a framework .jar file). But to each their own. If you can get the job done a better way then I would use what you're comfortable with.
My system to test apps isn't much difference than yours. I think the only thing I do differently is change the app to be replaced to .bak instead of .foo although I can't imagine there's much difference. There's been a few apps like the Contacts app that gave me a bunch of trouble when modifying them but I can't remember ever having trouble bringing back the stock app. I wish I had more insight on that situation for you. If push comes to shove I would reflash the rom zip over factory reset only because the factory reset won't correct the system partition problem, if that's what's going on in this case.

kevintm78 said:
If you still need a recovery zip let me know and I'll get one together..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, Merry Christmas!
Thanks very much. No rush on that, I'm OK on the Edge version for the minute.
What would be extremely useful if you have some time/curiousity would be to replicate my steps, ie renaming the untouched apk in a fresh MODest flash (i.e. break the contacts/phone function), and then see if you can get the whole thing working again without a factory reset, or if not, why. I see on xda, you & I are not the first ones to be tripping over this contacts.apk issue.
The other thing that would be telling is after successfully installing the Edge.zip, whether you can modify something (like a picture) within the contacts apk within the zip, reflash the zip and have contacts/phone still working with the change active.
I think there just HAS to be abetter way than Factory Resets.
Thanks so much again for the insights. I really want to become at least minimally competent at hacking my own ROMs together so I don't have to feel like such a noob/mooch on here, but I really do appreciate the help.
What are your weapons/platform of choice, or, if there are better tools for noobs learning the ropes, I'm all ears.
EDIT: Just found this. The last post is interesting...
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/devs-only/recompile-seccontacts-apk-t3377142/page2

ForestCat said:
First, Merry Christmas!
Thanks very much. No rush on that, I'm OK on the Edge version for the minute.
What would be extremely useful if you have some time/curiousity would be to replicate my steps, ie renaming the untouched apk in a fresh MODest flash (i.e. break the contacts/phone function), and then see if you can get the whole thing working again without a factory reset, or if not, why. I see on xda, you & I are not the first ones to be tripping over this contacts.apk issue.
The other thing that would be telling is after successfully installing the Edge.zip, whether you can modify something (like a picture) within the contacts apk within the zip, reflash the zip and have contacts/phone still working with the change active.
I think there just HAS to be abetter way than Factory Resets.
Thanks so much again for the insights. I really want to become at least minimally competent at hacking my own ROMs together so I don't have to feel like such a noob/mooch on here, but I really do appreciate the help.
What are your weapons/platform of choice, or, if there are better tools for noobs learning the ropes, I'm all ears.
EDIT: Just found this. The last post is interesting...
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/devs-only/recompile-seccontacts-apk-t3377142/page2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not exactly sure what's going on with your contacts app not showing back up. Ever since modestrom v8 (I think) I've been doing the multi dpi on SecContacts_M_OSup_Note_Legacy_USA and every time I would test it doing the same as your way. After a reboot if the modified app was no good, then I would just delete that new app and change the name of the old app back to .apk, reboot and it would work again. I can't remember running in to any problems where I would have to factory reset or reflash the rom to get things working again.
There has been a couple times where I've had to factory reset to get a color change to show up or if you're adding toggles to the QS drop down that also (sometimes) requires a factory reset to show up.
As far as the post you linked, that is exactly how I do it except I use winrar to open the newly compiled app and drag the changes to the original. When I drag the changes over I change the compression method from "normal" to "store". If I don't change the compression the app doesn't work for me. The apps that I've ran into where I had to change the compression are: secContacts, secCamera, secSettings, and framework-res.apk. Any other app that I've worked on can be dragged and dropped without compression changes.
Jar files don't need an original signature though (so long as signature verification has been disabled, which it has in modestrom). They can be decompiled, edited, recompiled, and copied to the system. It does require a dalvik cache/cache wipe though on all framework files except for the framework-res.apk and twframework-res.apk
If you get a chance, you should start using apktool to decompile/recompile. It will make things easier for you in the long run and most of the time if you've made any mistakes in your edits apktool will catch it. If you're not familiar with apktool you can try using Tickle My Android or Advanced Apktool. You may also want to get Apktool by itself. I use all three of them. Android can be fickle and sometimes what works with one app won't work with another. What's nice about TMA and Advanced Apktool is that they'll do the drag and drop method for you, but when the compression needs to be changed that's when I use apktool by itself.
Sorry for the word vomit. Hopefully, this all makes sense.