So I am not even a week into rooting my Evo and flashing roms and I am not sure what the best way to organize my backups are.
What do you guys do to manage all the nandroids and app backups in Titanium?
Here is my situation, I have my nandroids from right after rooting and a few from doing the two updates that CM7 had. I first did a nandroid or two using CWM, I then flashed recovery to Amon_Ra and did nandroids in their also. I also had all my apps backed up using TB post-root (sense) and now that I am on CM7 I have many different apps that I have added. I have read some people say not to backup apps from 2.2 on sense to CM7, though the few that I have done work fine.
Should I delete all the backups in TB from my stock 2.2 w sense? Can I rename my RA nandroid backup files so that I can label them better to know what they are? Or should I just move them to my computer and put them in a folder named what they are and leave the file name alone? Can I move the backup folder from TB onto my computer that has my sense backups to save for a rainy day?
I can see this getting very messy and confusing if I do not get a handle on all these backup files. Just wondering if someone has a good system for keeping track of these and when to get rid of nandroids and app backups.
Thanks!!!!
i just created folders named clock and amon ra on my computer, and inside those folders i created folders with the names of the roms i flashed with each recovery and then i moved the nandroid files from my sd card into the computer folders that corresponded, and i only left my last working backup on my phone
- clear your TB and start fresh. i would advise against trying to criss cross your Sense/AOSP backups. it may work but i'd consider it a fluke not the rule.
- you cannot restore a RA nandroid with CWM nandroid and viseversa. so whichever one you think you'll stick with...you can get rid of the others.
- yes, you can rename the nandriod folder. no spaces. very handy once you get a few nandroids going.
- i use SyncToy from Microsoft to copy all the sdcard data onto my pc. this way i can protect my nandroids, pics, vids, mp3, misc crap.
i normally leave one or two nandriods on my device (i have had a bad nandroid in the past) and zip of the current rom.
as for the deletion policy..that depends on your level of paranoia and amount of available diskspace and time.
DraginMagik said:
- clear your TB and start fresh. i would advise against trying to criss cross your Sense/AOSP backups. it may work but i'd consider it a fluke not the rule.
- you cannot restore a RA nandroid with CWM nandroid and viseversa. so whichever one you think you'll stick with...you can get rid of the others.
- yes, you can rename the nandriod folder. no spaces. very handy once you get a few nandroids going.
- i use SyncToy from Microsoft to copy all the sdcard data onto my pc. this way i can protect my nandroids, pics, vids, mp3, misc crap.
i normally leave one or two nandriods on my device (i have had a bad nandroid in the past) and zip of the current rom.
as for the deletion policy..that depends on your level of paranoia and amount of available diskspace and time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I like the idea of clearing out TB (I just did it) I was just worried removing the files would somehow mess up the TB app.
Sticking with Amon RA and I knew about not being able to use nandroids from different recoveries.
I will checkout synctoy, sounds cool, I already have three folders of my entire SD card that I made during my rooting process and changing recovery process. I hate it, I don't know what I need to keep from them.
Thanks for the input
Related
Is it possible to have multiple NANDROID backups at once? The only thing I can see that would resemble this is via ROM Manager, where it let's you do multiple backups but I'm not sure if these are NANDROID backups.
It would be cool to have all ROMs installed and as backups, so that it's easier to go from one to another while testing and deciding on which one to use as your daily driver.
I have three different nandroid backups on my SD card currently.
HondaCop said:
Is it possible to have multiple NANDROID backups at once? The only thing I can see that would resemble this is via ROM Manager, where it let's you do multiple backups but I'm not sure if these are NANDROID backups.
It would be cool to have all ROMs installed and as backups, so that it's easier to go from one to another while testing and deciding on which one to use as your daily driver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can have multiple backups in amon ra or clockword. Clockwork/Rom Manager let you rename backups.
chazglenn3 said:
I have three different nandroid backups on my SD card currently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet! So you did them straight from Recovery or via ROM Manager?
Yes, that's the beauty of it. Just wipe and restore to any setup you have backed up. However many you want, however different.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
adelaney said:
Yes, that's the beauty of it. Just wipe and restore to any setup you have backed up. However many you want, however different.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
donatom3 said:
You can have multiple backups in amon ra or clockword. Clockwork/Rom Manager let you rename backups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, how have I lived without doing this! hahahah I guess because I've been living on CM6 ever since the first nightly was released. But I am going to give it a shot too. Thanks.
HondaCop said:
Is it possible to have multiple NANDROID backups at once? The only thing I can see that would resemble this is via ROM Manager, where it let's you do multiple backups but I'm not sure if these are NANDROID backups.
It would be cool to have all ROMs installed and as backups, so that it's easier to go from one to another while testing and deciding on which one to use as your daily driver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
Open up your nand backup file, usually named "nandroid" you will find the last 5 or so backup with date and time used to name the files. The Recovery program may have a limit on how many it keeps at once (i.e. last 5...) However if you're trying to back up specific ROM's you may want to copy and paste these to another area of the SD Card so that they are not overwritten in subsequent backups. You can then move them back (in the event that they are overwritten) to the nandroid folder to restore.
-kp
You can use nandroid to make as many backups as you want as long as you have room on your SD card. It is also safe to rename by mounting your SD card and going to the nandroid folder and renaming each one.
HondaCop said:
Man, how have I lived without doing this! hahahah I guess because I've been living on CM6 ever since the first nightly was released. But I am going to give it a shot too. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right now I have a Sprint 1.47 rom with root access, a DC 3.2.3 rom and the latest CM6 nightly all as Nandroid backups. Once the official Froyo update comes out and is given root access by someone here I will replace the Sprint 1.47 with that and have those three backups.
Captainkrtek said:
You can use nandroid to make as many backups as you want as long as you have room on your SD card. It is also safe to rename by mounting your SD card and going to the nandroid folder and renaming each one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Amon's recovery and I renamed 4 of my backups a few days ago. They won't restore now, I'm getting the "run from mobile-sh" error
I want to delete the bloatware on my Vibrant. I have Root Manager and Titanium Backup. I tried backing up Sims 3, deleted it, but could only restore data, not the app. I deleted the Sims, but was able to get the .apk online. I want to delete the bloatware, but how do I back it up so I can restore it incase I need to. It seems I can only restore data, not the .apk file.
Any help appreciated
Just run the apks from your phone and they will install.
But the APKS wont be there if I delete them
You said you downloaded the apks correct? Just save them on your computer if you ever wanna play the Sims then simply put the apks on your phones sd card and run them from a file manager.
No, I downloaded only the Sims apk, the other apks are in the system on the phone. It won't let me move/copy them, so if I delete them, they'd be gone
I have both apks and I have deleted the Sims off my phone and reinstalled and works fine.
Yes, but I mean the other bloatware, such as Allshare or Amazon mp3, if I delete those APKs, how am I able to reinstall them
Ohhhh I see lol why would you want to reinstall them? The Sims 3 is the only thing I would consider keeping out of the garbage thats preloaded on the phone. Most of the bloat ware are useless trials anyway.
I mean for warranty purposes, I would need to unroot and reinstall it incase something happened
Well flashing the stock rom would be pretty easy and would restore everything except the sims which you have
Oh thanks
Puushiki said:
Oh thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just be aware this will remove everything that is not stock, so if you have anything you downloaded from market or elsewhere, you need to back that up separately. There are two basic ways to back things up, to the SD card and to your computer. The SD card is not wiped like the internal memory card is when you wipe, so apk files will be safe there. There should not be anything preventing you from copying apk files, ensure that you are rooted.
A few questions:
1.Titanium Backup says that the default backup directory is sdcard/titaniumbackup. But when I go to my Folders, that folder is listed right there and not inside the SD folder (which I assum is the SD card). There is no sdcard directory. So is this folder really still on the SD card?
2.Also, all the apps that I have bought, must be backed up to the SD card as well? Or can I just redownload them whenever I need them?
3. Is there a way to create an "image" of the phone that will back up everything, including settings, homescreens, apps, etc?
Excelsius said:
A few questions:
3. Is there a way to create an "image" of the phone that will back up everything, including settings, homescreens, apps, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid, My Friend.
If you are unfamiliar with what nandroid is or how to use it just search the forums here for all the info you'll need. It's very simple to backup and restore your system.
Titanium will NOT backup system apps. It can only back up their data.
Clockwork recovery (nandroid) makes a copy of pretty much everything, but you don't have the option I believe of restoring individual components with ease the way you can with Titanium.
Each serves very different purposes.
1. There's the "sdcard" (internal storage), and the "sd" (external storage). The phone always stores things on the sdcard portion for data and such, so I've got in the habit of just storing images & video and new apk's to install on the sd card, but everything else goes on the sdcard (even music for me, because my playlists seem to get cleared if I don't do that). So yes, you should have a directory under sdcard called titaniumbackup (along with a directory called sd).
2. You're best bet is to back them up using Titanium Backup, but the Market will remember all your downloads including paid aps once you've signed into your Gmail account. Titanium Backup will also backup market links, but be sure you download the busybox version (click on the "Problems?" button on the Overview screen).
3. Nandroid pretty much will create an image backup. Titanium Backup will save everything, but for system apps, just the data is saved (and so long as you're not flashing all kinds of different ROMs, Titanium Backup should restore everything nice and tidy for you).
Excelsius said:
A few questions:
1.Titanium Backup says that the default backup directory is sdcard/titaniumbackup. But when I go to my Folders, that folder is listed right there and not inside the SD folder (which I assum is the SD card). There is no sdcard directory. So is this folder really still on the SD card?
2.Also, all the apps that I have bought, must be backed up to the SD card as well? Or can I just redownload them whenever I need them?
3. Is there a way to create an "image" of the phone that will back up everything, including settings, homescreens, apps, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back when I had the G1 and always made a backup with nandroid. I could just go into the nandroid folder, find the current backup, then find the folder which had all the apks and just take the ones out that I wanted to. I had a reason for doing this, forgot why.
I don't know if nandroid still uses the folder structure on clock's recovery like it did on Armon(?)'s recovery in the G1. So, I'm not sure if it's still possible.
This is probably a really dumb question but how do I use the backups I've created?
When I flash a ROM that I don't like and I try to restore to an earlier backup I've created it is not working. It either says something about the MD5sum or just aborts in general...
What process do I take in order to restore the phone to an earlier backup?
And better yet, if I install a new ROM and don't want to go through the process of installing all my apps again is there a way to just restore my files from a backup?
You can do an advanced restore and restore only data to get your apps, etc. back. There is also titanium backup that is great for backing up and restoring between roms (the only way to restore apps when using a different rom... restore data from one rom onto another can cause serious issues).
If you're getting MD5 sum errors, the backups are being corrupted. So unless your messing with them on your sdcard, then there may be some bad areas on that sdcard and it might be time for a new one.
danaff37 said:
You can do an advanced restore and restore only data to get your apps, etc. back. There is also titanium backup that is great for backing up and restoring between roms (the only way to restore apps when using a different rom... restore data from one rom onto another can cause serious issues).
If you're getting MD5 sum errors, the backups are being corrupted. So unless your messing with them on your sdcard, then there may be some bad areas on that sdcard and it might be time for a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait so in order to keep my apps I can go to advanced restore and restore only data but it could cause serious issues? So basically it is possible but risky?
and normally should my restore points flash just like a rom when I go to "Restore"? do I need to wipe everything before I restore?
I did copy and paste them onto my computer so I had them in two places... maybe that corrupted them. Anyways a new, bigger, faster SD card is in the mail so that's kind of a coincidence.
a restore in clockwork is an image restore, so everything in that partition will be wiped anyways.
I need someone to give me a course "backing up 101" ... I have so many questions I do not know where to begin. I have muddled through rooting and things are running ok. I have even put CM7 on an SD card and it works but I do not understand about backing up:
Why do people backup individual apps when you could re-download them from market?
How do you backup "everything" (like all your apps at once and/or plus the ROM itself)?
When you backup something that is in internal memory (that's EMMC, right?) where does it back up to (my desktop? SD card? more internal memory?)
What programs (apps) do you use for backing up?
Any backing up info you would like to share would be very appreciated. Thank you.
barbo said:
I need someone to give me a course "backing up 101" ... I have so many questions I do not know where to begin. I have muddled through rooting and things are running ok. I have even put CM7 on an SD card and it works but I do not understand about backing up:
Why do people backup individual apps when you could re-download them from market?
How do you backup "everything" (like all your apps at once and/or plus the ROM itself)?
When you backup something that is in internal memory (that's EMMC, right?) where does it back up to (my desktop? SD card? more internal memory?)
What programs (apps) do you use for backing up?
Any backing up info you would like to share would be very appreciated. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People back up roms with clockworkmod in case you have issues or want to flash another rom and something goes wrong allowing you to revert back to the old one. That backup is stored on your nooks sd card. People back up apps with Titanium backup from the market. You can save the app plus the data (gmail for example). Those are stored on your nooks sd card as well. If you have a lot of apps, in my opinion, it is easier to restore from titanium than redownload each one. Both clockworkmod and titanium backup creates folders on the sd card and recalls them when needed. You would not have to concern yourself with doing anything but choosing to back up or choosing to restore.
I make backups of the ROM because i'm constantly messing it and sometimes it's easier to restore it then try and fix what i've goofed up.
Using Titanium Backup i do a batch backup of all my apps at once, and if i need to restore even one app from it It's saved all data.
Backup ROM -keeps Angry Birds
Backup Angry Birds - saves all my completed levels.
Hello,
I wonder if anyone know... What happens when let's say i have 9gb of data on my s2 and i want to backup it with nandroid? It should be possible to do this to sd card, but what if some apps are on phone and some on sd card? How backup then?
If i upgrade to a newer custom built rom, i them try to backup, wouldn't it restore the older backed up firmware? Or just apps and settings, but not rom itself?
Thank you,
Tomas
no one? did no one fill their phone and tried to backup? maybe there is a solution to backup to a computer?
execine said:
Hello,
I wonder if anyone know... What happens when let's say i have 9gb of data on my s2 and i want to backup it with nandroid? It should be possible to do this to sd card, but what if some apps are on phone and some on sd card? How backup then?
If i upgrade to a newer custom built rom, i them try to backup, wouldn't it restore the older backed up firmware? Or just apps and settings, but not rom itself?
Thank you,
Tomas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid backups are an image of
/system
/data
/dbdata
(on CF-Root, not sure about original CWM) it also includes .android_secure, which is SD-stored apps.
I don't understand what you are asking.
If there is not enough space you obviously have to delete something.
BTW: data-partition is around 2,1GB and system-partition 500MB, so there is no way a single backup can use 9GB
Maybe I am not being very clear, sorry about that
Coming from an Iphone, i am looking for a total phone backup solution. Itunes backs up literally everything - your apps, music, photos etc. It's filled probably with 20gb of different data.
Question is if I have my phone filled with games, different apps which make let's say 10 gb (not that much counting in that one game may be up to 1 gb), so how do i backup this? To SD card?
What if I have 20gb of data , 10 of which are on phone, 10 on sd card, in this case i wouldn't be able to backup everything?
One more technical question about rom upgrades. Currently i installed Villain Rom and have a backup made with nandroid. When i upgrade to a newer Villain Rom 1.5 or whatever comes out and I do the restore, i suppose it will restore 1.4 rom version with it's all apps and settings?
In this case, how do i backup only accounts, contacts, sms , apps, photogallery but not rom itself?
Sorry for all those questions, but i'm reading the forum all over, and there's still hundreds of questions i'm looking to find answers, so that i could comfortably migrate from iphone to galaxy..
execine said:
Maybe I am not being very clear, sorry about that
Coming from an Iphone, i am looking for a total phone backup solution. Itunes backs up literally everything - your apps, music, photos etc. It's filled probably with 20gb of different data.
Question is if I have my phone filled with games, different apps which make let's say 10 gb (not that much counting in that one game may be up to 1 gb), so how do i backup this? To SD card?
What if I have 20gb of data , 10 of which are on phone, 10 on sd card, in this case i wouldn't be able to backup everything?
One more technical question about rom upgrades. Currently i installed Villain Rom and have a backup made with nandroid. When i upgrade to a newer Villain Rom 1.5 or whatever comes out and I do the restore, i suppose it will restore 1.4 rom version with it's all apps and settings?
In this case, how do i backup only accounts, contacts, sms , apps, photogallery but not rom itself?
Sorry for all those questions, but i'm reading the forum all over, and there's still hundreds of questions i'm looking to find answers, so that i could comfortably migrate from iphone to galaxy..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding restoring only apps/accounts/etc but not the rom iteself, within cwm, in backup and restore, chhoose advanced restore and the restore data.
Im not certain whether it restores gallery or sms.i sync my photos via dropbox, and backup my texts seperately.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App
So there is no unified backup solution for android? You would have to back up everything separately ?
execine said:
So there is no unified backup solution for android? You would have to back up everything separately ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's fairly simple:
Nandroid for your ROM and user data that is on the PHONE and /data partition
For the /sdcard and /sdcard/external_sd, that's up to you to sort out... Perhaps back up the contents by connecting to your PC? Then copy the contents of the SD? That way you have your nandroid backup stored on the computer just in case
so then in case something goes wrong, i restore with nandroid and manually copy contents from PC and ALL of my phone's data (software, contacts, gallery etc) will be there?
execine said:
Coming from an Iphone, i am looking for a total phone backup solution. Itunes backs up literally everything - your apps, music, photos etc. It's filled probably with 20gb of different data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, now you have a phone that doesn´t hide everything from the user it shouldn´t be that hard to make a backup.
There are basically 4 interesting partitions on the phone:
system (about 500MB) - This holds more or less the whole Firmware. While it is technically just a partition on the flash-memory, it is used like a ROM in normal usage, so the only situation where something will be written on this partition is a firmware-upgrade.
data (about 2GB)- This partition holds all user-installed apps and their settings.
sdcard (about 12GB) - This is not really a sdcard. Instead it is a part of the internal memory, you can use it for example for media, documents, images etc., whatever you like. This partition can be accessed on your computer as a regular USB-storage, and you can do a backup of it the way you like, either simply copying everything, or using a backup-solution of your choice.
external_sd (optional) - This is the micro-sd-card you can put in your phone. Obviously you can use it for anything you like. This partition is also accessible as a USB-storage or you can use a simple USB card-reader to access it on your computer.
Usually all your applications and settings will be stored in the /data/-partition.
If you choose the Move-to-SD option in the application-manager, some parts of the application will be moved to the (internal) /sdcard/-partition, but all the user-data/settings still remain on the /data/-partition.
So the maximum space you need to backup all your settings and apps is under 3GB.
Now to the possibilities of a backup, and the importance of the different things.
A nandroid-backup will basically make an image of the /system/ and /data/ partitions (also a bit more, but that´s not really important).
Usually it will use the /sdcard/-partition, which actually is still in your phone.
If you restore a Nandroid-Backup your System will be in the exact state before the backup, including all applications with their settings (which also means contacts, e-mails, sms etc).
Obviously everything that has changed after the backup will be lost.
A restore well also restore the complete firmware from the backup.
A backup from Nandroid can only be restored on the same phone, with the same partitions.
The second possibility to make backups would be TitaniumBackup.
This program will store all your installed applications and their data.
Default it will store it on the internal /sdcard/, but it is probably more useful to change the path to the external_sd.
Everything in Android is an application, so this will also save all your settings.
During a restore TitaniumBackup simply reinstalls your applications and then restores their settings.
TitaniumBackup can restore your applications with any Firmware, and in theory even on other phones (it may not work with special System-apps but it surely works with most "user-apps")
So Clockworkmod is great if you want to play around with different firmwares, especially Custom ROMs.
You can install different ROMs, make a backup and very easy and fast switch between them.
For a "regular" backup TitaniumBackup is maybe the better choice, it can backup all your settings and applications and for example if a Firmware-update goes wrong simply restore anything.
There is no real need to backup the /system/-partition anyway, you can simply download the Firmware and flash it, there is no user-data on this partition.
sdcard and external_sd usually only contains media, which you probably have somewhere on your PC anyway, so there is no real need for a backup, maybe for the pictures and videos you make with your phone, but again you should copy this on your PC regularly anyway. And if you want you can easily copy everything on it as well.
What if I have 20gb of data , 10 of which are on phone, 10 on sd card, in this case i wouldn't be able to backup everything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Question is if I have my phone filled with games, different apps which make let's say 10 gb (not that much counting in that one game may be up to 1 gb), so how do i backup this? To SD card?[/quote]
Apps can´t be several GB in size on Android. Normally you have only around 2GB for Apps, if you use the App2SD-feature it can be expanded a bit.
If applications need a lot of data, for example like navigation-programs or games, they will download this on the first start and store this on the /sdcard/-partition.
As I said, you can access this easily like a removable drive and copy everything you like.
It isn´t also that important to make a backup of this, as it can be downloaded again anytime, and if something goes wrong it usually will mess up your system and don´t influence the data-partition anyway (well as long as you don´t repartition the whole memory)
Thank you, that does explain a lot!
I connected my S2, but i can't see to find any installed apps browsing through USB, or i shouldn't be seeing that?
Tomas
execine said:
Thank you, that does explain a lot!
I connected my S2, but i can't see to find any installed apps browsing through USB, or i shouldn't be seeing that?
Tomas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, they are stored in /data
You back that up using nandroid, then you restore it via nandroid and they will be there. What you see on your PC via USB is the "internal SD".
Understood, thank you. Things getting more clear after a week of reading and using the phone ))
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
execine said:
I connected my S2, but i can't see to find any installed apps browsing through USB, or i shouldn't be seeing that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you see the (internal) /sdcard/ partition and (if present) the /external_sd/ (the MicroSD-card you have in your phone)
To simply backup your applications, the easiest way is TitaniumBackup.
This will store the .apk and settings for each up in a folder of your choice (on /sdcard/ or /external_sd/, as you usually have no direct access to the other partitions)
You can copy this folder on your PC, or even in the TitaniumBackup-folder of another phone and use it there.
There are several advantages using TitaniumBackup to save your Apps over CWM-recovery. You can use it with the enabled phone for example, and also just restore individual Apps, if you like.