Database Users

Keeping Backups ?

Well, first day I got my tab i rooted and such.
Tried a rom (wich wiped everything obviously)
installed a couple of apps then made a backup with Titanium.
decided to go back to stock rom for the time being (wait for more bugless roms)
When i tried to restore my Backups, everything was gone.
question is, Does the backup just go in general internal storage, wich is not calculated as a SD card, so gets formated everytime we wipe??
Im used to backup and wipe, on my phone wich has internal and external SD, so no problems there.
Any input ?

If I understand right, there is no separate storage on the N10. I think /sdcard is basically just an emulated folder sitting on the data partition, so anything that wipes data, will wipe the sdcard. Might want to wait for someone else to give their input on this though.
As for backups, at the most I usually just backup app's (apk files) and put them in a folder on my computer, then just reinstall all of them with Android Commander.

[Q] Backup procedure so tedious? Whats your method?

Im not a noob user, but im not obsessed with changing ROMS daily. However when I want to try a new ROM I procrastinate because I find the whole process so tedious. I have TB Pro, and backup all apps and data, without the system data though. After flashing a new ROM, the setup of everything takes so long. Nova launcher, all my widget placements, options etc. And often times, Im missing data from an app.
With the N7 as well I gotta transfer all the mp3s as well because a full wipe clears everything out.
Is there an easier way? Am I missing something here? What is your procedure for a quick way to change a ROM.
Thanks for your time and input.

You're wasting a lot of time and effort by wiping your virtual sd card partition when changing roms. You don't need to wipe it and copy everything back again.
Keep your mp3s and titanium backups on the device, though no harm in making a local copy of your TitaniumBackup folder on PC or cloud for safekeeping.
When you change roms, a full wipe just needs a wipe of everything except the sdcard.
I've also use titanium backup pro. the batch backup and restore of user apps and data has never failed me, never lost any data. it's time consuming with a lot of apps, but at least you can select all and let it do its thing.
nova launcher should also have an option to create a local backup of all your home screen preferences and settings etc, don't know if it includes the widget layout, possibly some limitations there.
Titanium backup pro can make flashable zips of all your user apps and data, which you can simply flash after installing a rom, though i've never tried it, just used to batch restore within the app. you may have to reboot in between flashing this zip. guide will be out there somewhere. EDIT: found it, menu->batch actions, then scroll down, there's an option under 'Recovery'.
So procedure:
- Titanium backup of all user apps + data (create flashable zip)
- Nandroid backup (just in case!)
- Full wipe (not virtual sdcard partition)
- Flash Rom
- Reboot
- Boot back into recovery and flash the zip of your backups.
Yeh can be time consuming, but a lot is automated. Saves a lot more time than needlessly backing up all of your sd card partition, wiping and restoring it :good:
Give it a try next time, might try it myself.

eddiehk6 said:
You're wasting a lot of time and effort by wiping your virtual sd card partition when changing roms. You don't need to wipe it and copy everything back again.
Keep your mp3s and titanium backups on the device, though no harm in making a local copy of your TitaniumBackup folder on PC or cloud for safekeeping.
When you change roms, a full wipe just needs a wipe of everything except the sdcard.
I've also use titanium backup pro. the batch backup and restore of user apps and data has never failed me, never lost any data. it's time consuming with a lot of apps, but at least you can select all and let it do its thing.
nova launcher should also have an option to create a local backup of all your home screen preferences and settings etc, don't know if it includes the widget layout, possibly some limitations there.
Titanium backup pro can make flashable zips of all your user apps and data, which you can simply flash after installing a rom, though i've never tried it, just used to batch restore within the app. you may have to reboot in between flashing this zip. guide will be out there somewhere. EDIT: found it, menu->batch actions, then scroll down, there's an option under 'Recovery'.
So procedure:
- Titanium backup of all user apps + data (create flashable zip)
- Nandroid backup (just in case!)
- Full wipe (not virtual sdcard partition)
- Flash Rom
- Reboot
- Boot back into recovery and flash the zip of your backups.
Yeh can be time consuming, but a lot is automated. Saves a lot more time than needlessly backing up all of your sd card partition, wiping and restoring it :good:
Give it a try next time, might try it myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply and detailed response. Just seems when I do the full wipe it wipes out the SD card on the N7 which is internal. Or perhaps its the flash of the ROM. Anyway, the standard wipe on TWRP is not supposed to include the internal storage. Ill try again listing your outline.
Thanks

Hightower68 said:
Im not a noob user, but im not obsessed with changing ROMS daily. However when I want to try a new ROM I procrastinate because I find the whole process so tedious. I have TB Pro, and backup all apps and data, without the system data though. After flashing a new ROM, the setup of everything takes so long. Nova launcher, all my widget placements, options etc. And often times, Im missing data from an app.
With the N7 as well I gotta transfer all the mp3s as well because a full wipe clears everything out.
Is there an easier way? Am I missing something here? What is your procedure for a quick way to change a ROM.
Thanks for your time and input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably already know it but nova launcher has its own backup/restore feature,that sets up your widgets/desktop layout/etc. Although I get your point it can be a chore getting everything setup again, like wifi passwords, alarms and other settings.
What holds me back from flashing rooms on the n7, is having multi user set up, as I haven't found a way to backup/restore the other persons apps/settings/data which is a pain.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda app-developers app

Hightower68 said:
Thanks for the reply and detailed response. Just seems when I do the full wipe it wipes out the SD card on the N7 which is internal. Or perhaps its the flash of the ROM. Anyway, the standard wipe on TWRP is not supposed to include the internal storage. Ill try again listing your outline.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont use the manual wipe data option. Just do factory reset from recovery. No need to do anything else to wipe
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[Q] Unsuccessful Nandroid Backup Eats Up Memory Space

Hi everyone,
I have a situation here with my Nexus 4. I am running CWM Recovery 6.0.4.3 and AOKP nightly builds. I was using Stock ROM before AOKP. That time, before I upgraded I was trying to make a nandroid backup. I had around 7GB free space before performing the backup. Eventually the backup went wrong, it said "Error while backing up /data". I don't know what to do so I just reboot and re-run the backup process, but it still gave me the same error. I then boot into my phone and realized something... my free memory space has lessened to around 2GB only! I then decided not to make the backup and just flash my ROM to AOKP. I thought this will clear the problem, but it's not.
So, my question is, how to clear this used space? I checked in the nandroid backup folder and found absolutely nothing there, so it must be somewhere else... Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance

james.abcde said:
Hi everyone,
I have a situation here with my Nexus 4. I am running CWM Recovery 6.0.4.3 and AOKP nightly builds. I was using Stock ROM before AOKP. That time, before I upgraded I was trying to make a nandroid backup. I had around 7GB free space before performing the backup. Eventually the backup went wrong, it said "Error while backing up /data". I don't know what to do so I just reboot and re-run the backup process, but it still gave me the same error. I then boot into my phone and realized something... my free memory space has lessened to around 2GB only! I then decided not to make the backup and just flash my ROM to AOKP. I thought this will clear the problem, but it's not.
So, my question is, how to clear this used space? I checked in the nandroid backup folder and found absolutely nothing there, so it must be somewhere else... Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just as you said, it must be somewhere. Check other folders or even the rood of the virtual SD card. If you still don't find anything you may have to factory reset the device and wipe the SD card partition. Before you jump the gun though, make sure (assuming you're using windows as your PC OS, show hidden folders.

Did you check of have a Clockworkmod folder? Each time you create a backup, it creates a new folder with a new time stamp.
Use a file manager to delete the unnecessary or aborted backups. The backup folder should be visible with having to use an app such as Root Explorer.

[Q] Help a (desperate) newbie (how to back-up rom)

Hello all,
Firstly, please bear with me if my question seems simple... I have flashed a couple of roms without problems, have recovered a bricked mobile and have generally messed around without too many disasters - unless you count the many hours spent setting-up my mobile after re-flashing... and this is the point... I will give a background and then questions will follow...
background:
I have finally found the rom for me (Albe 95 v2 btw - highly recommended, the guy did a truly grand job) and since I reckon that sooner or later I will become "restless" again and want to re-flash or mess around, I would like to make a back-up of my complete system... not app-by-app but do the backup in such a way that I get a single .zip file at the end of it all, and no matter how badly I might mess things up further down the road I can always return to my current status with in a flash (sorry for the poor pun)...
should be easy, right? well I've tried following some simple steps with clockwork mod (basically trying some of the functions in the backup directory, where there is an option that says something that amounts to "make a zip") and just now for the second time I've had a failure... after seemingly working and copying files for some 5-10 minutes it suddenly stops, says there was an error, and that's it... time to exit cwm and reboot... and that's when the real problems begin...
upon exiting CWM, i get a weird message (something about maybe losing root, and having to fix it before exiting)... after exiting (I selected the option to "fix it" btw) upon reboot the mobile works fine (rooted and all) except one detail - the sim card doesn't receive signal anymore... this happened just the same way first time round and I want to know what I´m doing wrong.. I did read some guides about making a backup and they seem easy enough when I read them, but then this happens...
so question #1 - can somebody point me to a newbie-friendly, step-by-step, idiot-proof guide for how to reach my holy grail in the form of a zip file?
...all this brings me to question #2:
after installing the new rom, there is some 3Gb left of memory... after a day or so of using, theres about 700mb left... I formatted the SD card and wanted clockworkmod to backup directly onto the sd_card... is there an option for this? there is simply no way I will ever be able to free up space on the internal memory alone...
question #3 - where does all that space disappear??? and speaking of space disappearing, after clockworkmod did its partial backup, the internal storage was reduced from some 700mb to under 300... now even if the phone is strictly speaking working, I cannot so much as update an application, or download a new one... unfortunately this is where my ignorance shows, as I understand that the internal storage is split in two sections, but I have no idea how (if?) I can access the "main" one, where CWM is presumably writing its files and which I guess by now is chock-full... what can I do here? where does CWM hide its backups (and yes, I´ve searched around and read somewhere that its supposed to be in a directory such as Data/Media/clockworckmod, but I cannot find it... and I can see the hidden files...
in fact, out of 9Gb of internal storage, the directories & fiels I can see amount to a pitiful 1,3Gb, and yet if I check space available in system settings I get 300 Gb!!! that means I have a good 7,4 Gb of storage unaccounted for! that's not even considering that total space of internal card is 9gb, not the 16gb that it should be... in other words, I can account for almost exactly 10% of my internal storage... what the hell????? either my internal memory is made of dark matter or I need a charitable colleague on this board to explain to me what is going on... or maybe suggest a link that you learned from back in the day when you were a newbie...
that's it... for now... sorry for the extremely long post, but I am frustrated, as I have to flash this bugger, again...
Thank you in advance for any help, info, and advice...
P.

1. Not in a zip file. The backup feature in ClockworkMod and all other custom recoveries is what we call a nandroid backup. They generally are backed up and restored using the appropriate functions, and not via a flashable zip file.
2. On the Galaxy S4, the internal storage is labeled "sdcard0". Thus ClockworkMod apparently thinks it's a MicroSD card. Looking at another device running a current version of CWM, it doesn't appear that you can select the location. If you want to be sure the backup is made on the MicroSD card, change your recovery to TWRP 2.8.4.0. You can select where the backup goes on that recovery.
3. You likely made multiple backups with ClockworkMod. An odd thing, at least the the copy of ClockworkMod on my tablet, is that if you delete backups, the space itself is still allocated to the backups that no longer exist. To free up this space, in the backup and restore menu is an option to "free unused backup data". Horribly misnamed, if you select this option you should see your space return. In addition, keep in mind that Android stores hidden files and folders on the internal storage. If you download large games, you may find yourself running out of space as the game stores parts of itself on the internal storage in a hidden directory.
Once you get your space back, switch your recovery to TWRP so you can select the MicroSD card.

Thanks for your answer strephon.... but now i need to understand the next steps and to avoid a re-re-reinstall, i would like to ask what version of TWRP should i use?
I have Rashr to help me get this recovery app but i have a list of options to choos from and none seems correct...
if i run Phone Info, it tells me the following:
- device type: jflte
- Product name: kltexx
...but on rashr none of the TWRP versions seem applicable... the closest would be jfltexx (ver 2.8.5.0 )... there is also a ver 2.8.4.0 but also in this case only for jfltexx... is this what i'm after?
Please note that CWM and Philz both have jflte versions... maybe i should try Philz? Does it let me do nandroid backup on my Sd card?
Again, thanks in advance

You probably will have better luck using the TWRP Manager app, but the version you want is 2.8.4.0, for jfltexx. Philz is a derivative of ClockworkMod, but I don't know if it has the same limitations.

Thank you man... got twrp and ran the backup. Looks like just what i was after...
Much obliged ?

...now that i've managed to get the backup done i would like to make sure about one point :
This will work if i mess install a new rom and for whatever reason i want to revert to my backed up rom... but what if i brick my mobile?
Thats happened to me before and i downloaded a rom which I flashed using Odin and with the phone in download mode... is there a way i can merge these files in a zip (or whatever format )that i can then flash with Odin?

If you brick and need Odin, you won't be able to use these files in it. However, if you have to install a ROM via Odin, you can afterward install the recovery and restore from the nandroid backup. The backup would then restore the S4 back to the state it was in when the backup was made.

...but is there no way of doing that in one step only? I mean just as someone prepared that rom to be flashed via odin can i not create one myself? There's gotta be a way. ...

platypus78 said:
...but is there no way of doing that in one step only? I mean just as someone prepared that rom to be flashed via odin can i not create one myself? There's gotta be a way. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you want is not possible.
You won't brick your phone, it's almost impossible.
If a situation like you describe emerges, then just flash a custom recovery trough Odin and restore the backup.

Damn that sucks ?
But at least its cleared so thanks for that...

Flashing ROMs messes up access to my internal storage

When I was using the factory international rom, my internal storage like in TWRP/install is perfectly readable. I am sure my device has everything done needed to flash a custom rom. But like when I flash Havoc's ROM or lineage, then reboot to recovery, under install the directories become a bunch of folders with illegible names, and I cannot write to/from it anymore. The rom works fine, except the same thing happens when trying to access the files in the storage through a file manager or my computer.
Please this is super frustrating. If anyone has a solution to this, it would be of great help. Especially because now I cannot even restore backups in TWRP. Same for the apps like in titanium backup, I cannot restore them because it says there is no such directory anymore. I cannot for the life of me figure out what happens to my internal storage when I flash a ROM. I really don't want to have to use the MSM tool once again to start completely over again from the very beginning like I have so many times.
Thank you if you have any sort of solution to this, it would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: I fixed the encryption by formatting my data in TWRP. I lost everything, but it did work. I wiped all my data, then let the phone fully reboot without any lockscreen functions chosen. Then I got my internal storage directory back again. Good enough for me.