How to back up .apk before doing a factory reset? - Acer Iconia A500

Howdy to all the guru's out there!
What is the best way for me to back up all of the applications I've installed (particularly the ones that I've purchased, like root explorer)?
I copied a new wpa_supplicant over (in order to get ad-hoc networking) and now wifi won't start (even after copying the original back). So I'm thinking I may have to do a factory reset, but wanted to make sure I didn't loose my apps, etc...
Thank You much for any help!!

Try this
To back up your apps just like you get them -file expert- is what you need.
Click the app tab and they are all there for you to back up, and not zipped as in TB, saved as apps to reinstall.
Hope this helps...
Do a test off your backups first to make sure. MJ
Everyone - Don't forget to hit the Thanks'o'meter -

Related

[Q] Auto-install APKs at First Boot?

Did some searching on this but it came up blank, so maybe someone has a brilliant idea for this
Almost every other day we are getting new builds for Android. I'm sure many of you are like me and have a set of APKs you install with every build. For example SWYPE.
I would like to know if there is a way, when installing a new build, you can have certain apps auto-installed. This would really save me time.
Can't you just put them in the "AndroidApps" folder that usually comes with every build..?
shadiku said:
Can't you just put them in the "AndroidApps" folder that usually comes with every build..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wasn't sure if that was the proper way it was done. I tried that once, needless to say it didn't work out to well. Had to eat a hard reset.
Anyways, can anyone confirm that this is the best way to do it, or if you know of another that would be great. Please share!
Yup!
yes, i'm 99.9% sure that this is a way to auto-install apps onto your phone, as i've read this in other threads which say the same thing
I did this myself with darkstone's builds. I just loaded up the android apps folder. On second boot I had issues so I then deleted all those apps through winmo and everything was fine again. Not sure with this folder that everytime you boot it tries to reinstall or not. Would like some clarification on that.
Not worked for me
I would suggest downloading 7zip file manager, then when you download your desired rom then just open it up. Navigate to the data/apps folder and drop your apps in there, when you flash the rom then your personal apps will be flashed and installed as if they came with the rom already.
That's what I do and I have never had an issue.
Or there always is ADB
HypoTurtle said:
Or there always is ADB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are some adb apk tools that could probably do a batch install
Am i right that after putting those in your folder, after hard reset all those apps that were there will reinstall(those that you wanted, and those you uninstalled)? Or there will be trouble uninstalling as it is part of ROM?
Personally i used one of those App Backup & Restore apps from market. I had to spend 10 minutes pressing "Accept" cause they install by regular way, but it was quite fast anyway.
Marquo said:
Am i right that after putting those in your folder, after hard reset all those apps that were there will reinstall(those that you wanted, and those you uninstalled)? Or there will be trouble uninstalling as it is part of ROM?
Personally i used one of those App Backup & Restore apps from market. I had to spend 10 minutes pressing "Accept" cause they install by regular way, but it was quite fast anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now which folder are you referring to? When I mentioned placing apps, I was talking about putting them into the data/app folder of the rom zip you are flashing so they will be installed on first boot.
As for backing up and restoring apps, I suggest using MyBackup as it does apps plus their associated data as a batch backup/restore. It doesn't require you to accept each one.
Please mybackup will do sms/mms, call logs, browser shortcuts, and so on. Here is the market link for it: MyBackup
chrisrj28 said:
Now which folder are you referring to? When I mentioned placing apps, I was talking about putting them into the data/app folder of the rom zip you are flashing so they will be installed on first boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got you right, and i thought that as they are part of ROM, they will be saved and restored when hard reseting(even if you uninstalled them on purpose).
Thiss app sounds really nice, i shall try it out.
EDIT
Look what i found when i came to forum by main site of xda: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=23291051
Seems nice.

[Q] Best Out... ?

I bought a Desire Z about two weeks before the 1.72.405.2 OTA update came along, and I allowed it to update (Yeah I know, this was after all my first Android device).
Anyway, lately my phones been running slowly and apps force closing, so I've decided to downgrade it and root it (psneuter method), and try some different ROM's.
What I was wondering is, what would be the best way without root, to backup as much of my data as possible, apps, sms, files, and also if possible a backup that I can use in case I scew it up, so I can get it back to the way it is now.
I have a copy of:-
RUU_Vision_HTC_WWE_1.34.405.5_Radio_12.28b.60.140e_26.03.02.26_M_release_155556_signed
which I believe is the stock ROM for this device, but as far as I know if it goes wrong I'll be unable to flash this as the update won't allow me to flash an earlier version..
Would I be able to mount and then backup the whole phone using adb or any other method.
I've been reading about it for a while now, and while I have lots of bits of information, I've been unable to find a good solution.
Thanks,
...John...
j0hn0n1 said:
I bought a Desire Z about two weeks before the 1.72.405.2 OTA update came along, and I allowed it to update (Yeah I know, this was after all my first Android device).
What I was wondering is, what would be the best way without root, to backup as much of my data as possible, apps, sms, files, and also if possible a backup that I can use in case I scew it up, so I can get it back to the way it is now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without root, a good app to backup your other apps is astro file manager, its available free from the market, you just have to hit menu, tools and it'll back up all the apps on your sd card, in terms of files, just make sure their all on your sd card and they'll be fine
Not sure how to back up SmS but i know their are apps out their, a point you may have forgotten is to make sure you back up your contacts as they all get wiped and I made this mistake, the easiest way to do that is to make sure your contacts sync up with your google account so after rooting, you can just sync them back,
Hope i helped!
Use google to remember what apps you've downloaded from market. Once associated, when you flash a new rom, google will automatically redownload all your associated apps. For sms, i suggest you download GoSMS and use their internal backup feature. It will save to sd and be visible to your stock sms app as well on restore.
Sent from my AOSP Virtuous Desire Z using XDA App
Ya but too many times google starts restoring apps that I uninstalled months ago. Great idea but bad implementation imo.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
Sorry I haven't replied, was in work all day yesterday.
I have Astro File Manager, but I hadn't even considered it, thanks. I have my contacts sync'd with Google, so it seems that as long as I backup my files and sms everything else should be done automatically anyway.
Go SMS seems worth getting anyway, as the bog standard Android messages app is seriously dull. I'll give it a try.
I had wondered about Google Market restoring apps, but I thought it would only reinstall apps that were installed at the last sync.
If you install an app and it screws up your phone, and do a factory reset then Google will just reinstall the app that caused all the problems in the first place.
Definitely a good idea, but needs more work.
Anyway, thanks for all the info, I'll give it try tonight, when I get back from work.
...John...
I find SMS Backup & Restore to be the best app for this purpose and I wouldn't recommend the backup feature from the market, as you said it is likely to give problems.
Without root though, the backup choices are somewhat limited for apps and such.
I've been using Super Manager by gpc. It works pretty good, plus offers a ton of other features that can be used with or without root.
I've backed up what I could, although it's typical that as soon as it's all gone I realised things that I should have wrote down (I had been using the wallet/pocket app and although I backed up all my apps, I'm guesing it won't have backed up any of the passwords, logins, bank details, etc).
Anyway, I've downgraded and successfully rooted my phone (through gfree), I have CID: 11111111 and S-Off, but I haven't installed and ROM's yet as I read somewhere that you are supposed to wipe everything between ROM's, am I wiping the Davlik cache or doing a factory reset (I mean won't the factory reset just reset my stock ROM back to it's original condition).
I'm also wondering about finding custom ROMs, on my dell streak I had installed ROM Manager and could get a list of any that were available.
I first installed ROM Manager and used it to flash recovery, but this time I've installed CWM first, so would it be safe to install ROM Manager now, will it want to flash a recovery over the one I have already.
Or is it not advisable to use ROM Manager, as I have previously heard of a few problems it may cause.
Thanks ...John...
Rom manager shouldn't give any problems, but for custom roms it's best to take a look at the development forum. If you don't like that you can still use the list in rommanager, it might be just me who prefers downloading roms to my pc first.
But before you install any of them I recommend you make a nandroid backup from recovery just to be safe.
I think the issues were that some people, not all, found problems flashing some of the gingerbread roms via Rom manager. Better to save the Rom to SD and then flash it via CWM.
Right I've done a nandroid backup, and I've saved one to another mSD card which I can keep somewhere just in case (probably a bit over cautious, but...).
I thought that by saving apps to an sd card, they would run from the sd when I restarted my phone, even the ones that I had moved previously with the application manager in settings are not seen.
Still reinstalling the ones I want isn't really that bad.
Seriously, somebody needs to sort out the Markets app backups feature, when I was setting up the phone at first, I specifically chose to not automatically sync with Google and that I would do it manually when needed. Then I went in to the market to get a file manager and the download failed, it was only when I looked at what was going on I realised it was already downloading and reinstalling 96 apps. I looked around for a 'cancel all' option and there isn't any, so I had to cancel them all one by one and then uninstall the ones that had managed to install.
A simple checklist to select the apps you want would be great, oh, and a cancel all button would be a bonus.
Anyway, things are not as much fun when they're too easy.
Thanks ...John...

[Q] How to save before factory reset

Hi,
I don't know where I could ask this so I did it there... move the topic if it's not the good place, thanks.
I want to know on a STOCK (no root, no custom firmware) before a factory reset how to keep all savegame and datas from GAMES somewhere (like a SDCard or else)
because last time I did a factory reset I had to restart all from the start...
- Download all data for games (couples of megabytes)
- Restart all from level 1
Is there any application can help, or method ?
-----------------------------
seems possible to save with ADB
-----------------------------
DunDef :
Backup: adb pull /sdcard/DunDef/ sdcard/DunDef/
Restore: adb push sdcard/DunDef/ /sdcard/DunDef/
*************
but... I think need to be rooted to see all files for others and can push and pull all.
Note:
All method are welcome but I do prefer the genuine one.
Thanks by advance.
sanaell said:
Hi,
I don't know where I could ask this so I did it there... move the topic if it's not the good place, thanks.
I want to know on a STOCK (no root, no custom firmware) before a factory reset how to keep all savegame and datas from GAMES somewhere (like a SDCard or else)
because last time I did a factory reset I had to restart all from the start...
- Download all data for games (couples of megabytes)
- Restart all from level 1
Is there any application can help, or method ?
Note:
All method are welcome but I do prefer the genuine one.
Thanks by advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium Backup can backup all apps+data and restore back to new ROM even freeze bloatware without delete it
But you will need to be root
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&feature=search_result
I just want backup the "save and data" from game, nothing else...
what folder have to be saved, how to get them back.
let say I want get my tablet like first day, then just reinstall freshly games, and play back right where I was before reset.
Not restore applications, datas, etc...
But I will check about this application anyway.
Thanks.
You don't have access to those files w/o root.
titanium backup do it best.. of course with root, but u can use mybackup pro.. i think it dont require root...
There is a free in the market called "favorite games backup." Not sure what games you're playing but that's what I use for Angry Birds...FYI it backs up to your SD card so it will survive a factory reset. Hope this helps.
Actually I find where was the saves...
they are hidden in data/data/... need to be root for read this directory.
do you have a direct link to the market of the favorite games backup application
I just searched in market for it and can't find it. Might not be compatable with honeycomb or might have been pulled. Can someone confirm...is it ok for me to post .apk if its a free app? I would be happy to do so.

Useful Tips for using Titanium Backup for newbies

Quick Tip for using Titanium Backup
1. Backup "application widgets". Once you restore your launcher, restore this and reboot so that your widgets will work and you don't have to reconfigure your home screen widgets (which would say "problem loading widgets" otherwise).
2. Backup "accounts" to remember the fact that you have "allowed" access to your google account for various apps (mainly google apps and any app that accesses your google account). This is also required to remember your facebook and skype passwords.
3. Backup "LogProvider" for the call log. A lot of people think call logs are backed up by "contacts storage" but they're not.
4. "contact storage" backups your speed dial
5. "dialer storage" backups your SMS/MMS. After you restore you need to reboot for it to take effect.
6. No need to backup "calendar 1.0". Just calendar 1.1. (this backups the setting not the actual content provided that you sync with google)
7. Most settings in Setting cannot be backed up (ie. Voip account, wifi hotspot ssid, ringtones, volume, etc). Simply re-enter them.
8. After upgrading your rom version or migrating to a different rom, before you restore, for "system" apps, make sure you check each one to see if the version has changed. If so, don't restore or you will probably have force-closes down the road. This is especially true if you move to cyanogen or miui, don't restore system apps at all.
9. Generally you don't need to save system apks unless you plan on uninstalling them to experiment instead of freezing.
10. Don't backup/restore "market" settings or you'll lose market links to your apps. In fact after you restore all your user apps you won't see all of them linked in the market even if titanium backup is set up to remember the links. Just use titanium to clear the market user data, restart market and you're ready to go.
11. Titanium backup does not save your default programs. (ie. DEFAULT browser, dialer, and for different file types).
12. Let TB save the settings to sd card. The next time you install TB you won't need to install the "pro" app. It remembers.
13. TB does not remember what apps are frozen. So after a reinstall, you need to refreeze whatever apps you want to freeze.
Other things good to know:
If you migrate to a new rom, although titanium Pro has an option to attempt to restore system apps to be compatible, try only restore user apps just to avoid force closes.
If you have a fixed set of apps you know you want to freeze, create a filter containing these apps. If you install a new rom, you can freeze all of them all at once without having to go through each.
Can you expand on what you mean in point 1.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Scenario:
I have, say, go launcher or touch wiz as my launcher, I put widgets on my home screen like weather, google search bar and maybe a music player widget. I can use TB to backup my launcher, which would supposedly backup where these widgets are located on your home screen. However after reinstalling the rom, if I restore my launcher without restoring "application widgets", the place where these widgets are supposed to be will show "problem loading widgets". And you would have to remove these problematic widgets and recreate them.
So when you backup your launcher, backup "application widgets" as well. When you restore, restore both of them. And preferably after restoring, reboot before you go back to your launcher
By the way "application widgets" is an actual backupable item in TB (shown in green)
Is this making any sense?
Thanks and yes you are making perfect sense.
Many times I've had to delete then replace widgets from my launcher after restoring using TB so I'm interested in where in TB to find this option.
I'm probably looking right at it but just can't see it. Can you steer my in the right direction in TB?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Nice to learn new things, especially the widgets, hate having the "problem loading widget" all the time.
Thanks for highlighting these.
Ok found it.
It's an item in the app list called "application widgets" with the TB icon next to it.
Cool thanks never noticed it before.
Great tip.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Having a Problem
Ok so I am tring to do an Extract from CWM Backup...
Just Flashed Jugg. 2.0 everything is running great!!!
But TBP is just stuck at Restoring 0% on my first program... I have even followed their help page. cleared the market memory... What am i doing wrong please help...
T-mobile - SGH - T989
ROM: Juggernaut 2.0
Bardouns said:
Ok so I am tring to do an Extract from CWM Backup...
Just Flashed Jugg. 2.0 everything is running great!!!
But TBP is just stuck at Restoring 0% on my first program... I have even followed their help page. cleared the market memory... What am i doing wrong please help...
T-mobile - SGH - T989
ROM: Juggernaut 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you enabled USB debugging and UNKNOWN sources?!
yes on both
---------- Post added at 08:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 AM ----------
Ok... Don't know WTF... but its working like lightning now... have no idea... didn't do anything except download google text to voice... weird
Been using it for years and didn't figure out the speeddial backup. Good post. A couple thoughts in general as far as backup strategy.... IMO freezing is better than removing system apps because space is not an issue with the sgs2 like it is with some (older) phones. Swap a lot of roms and sooner or later your are going to either on accident or purpose delete something you shouldn't have and then have to restore. Going down the list and freezing them only takes a minute and is readily reversible with the same end result. If you must be rid of them freeze them first and give it a few days for any oddness to show up. Then uninstall.
Agree on restoring system apps. Always a good way to get odd behavior or fc's and the like. Normally there is no need anyways as the new rom has the same system apps in it and most of the settings can be remembered elsewhere. I do back up system apps though in case I want to grab an apk that isn't in the new rom.
Also IMO its a good idea to copy the entire contents of the internal sd over to the pc after doing a nandroid and ti backup. This way if things go to hell you have everything. The process I use is to do a ti backup and then nandroid in recovery. I mount while still in recovery and copy everything over to a folder on the pc. Now I have all my pics, everything. I use the external sd for music and other items that I know will move from rom to rom so that I don't have to hassle with them. Do this and your covered in every way if you have problems with your ti backup or nandroid. Both can happen sometimes. Also if your phone dies, goes missing etc at least you have a backup as recent as your last rom swap which for us is probably not too long ago. lol I keep the most recent two backups and delete the oldest as I make new ones with each new rom. This only takes a few minutes extra during the rom swap and if you need it you will be glad you have it.
Thank you for tips!
Very helpful. Been using TB for a while now but did not know all the details!
thanx for your efforts...
got some useful tips. I thought I know TB, but I didn't.
Nice write-up!
Any advice on what to do when you try to restore an app and it tells you "problem parsing the package"?
Seam to happen more often with apps that did not come from Android Market or Amazon Appstore...
Very good guide and not just for newbie's.
Thank you.​
App Folders i nApp Draw
i cant seem to figure out where the folders in the app draw are actually stored. i tried to do a restore from a previous rom (apps only, widgets ect) but im not sure where to go for app folders, thats if it will even do this for me.
Many Thanks...
...to the OP & others for this thread & the tips in it ;-)
Just rooted yesterday & ran TI backup. Have run it again incorporating the tips in this thread. Very good suggestion to copy the lot over to PC as well.
Also, people should remember to make a copy of their EFS file & keep that somewhere safe off the phone (keep a copy on your external SD card as well).
Everything I've read so far suggests you're royally boned if you trash your EFS, so making a couple of copies & keeping them in various spots (one on the external SD/one on PC) makes sense to me. Hellcat's kTool does a bangup job & is a nice little app to have handy ;-)
Hi everyone. If someone can give me the confirmation about the following:
1. is Titanium backup saving the settings for the backed up app or only the app itself?
2. are social hub, readers hub, game hub, talk, IM, safe to freeze or unistall cos I don't use that?
3. When you freeze the app, is the icon gone or it stays under "menu"?
4. is Email app safe to freeze/uninstall or I need that for using Gmail app?
I'm on stock 2.3.3 + CF-Root-SGS2_XX_OXA_KH1-v4.1-CWM4 for now.
thank you and regards.
Thanks - very helpful to have more information.
3. Backup "LogProvider" for the call log. A lot of people think call logs are backed up by "contacts storage" but they're not.
This was really helpful. Thank you.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

[Q]TWRP Backup Questions

Rooted 6.2.2, TWRP installed. I ran backup of the stock ROM, before I install a different ROM like CM7 or the ICS that is being developed do I need to copy that backup off the Fire? After the new ROM has been flashed, does that backup stay on the Fire or does the flashing process wipe it out?
Also, after restoring that backup......am I completely at the point when I took the backup? Data, apps, etc should be just as they were when I took the backup?
THANKS
The backup image is stored in TWRD directory with the data and time name. Rename it as your stock Tom for future use.
The contents of the backup as a defualt has ROM and your application if you did not change parameters
Regards
Sent from my GT-S5830 using XDA App
Just remind you that I have got a weird issue that some of my games does show their icons and when I type to them it says something like "Cannot load, restart Go Launcher" ( I use Go Launcher). I found no way to restart my launcher so that I just reinstall them and it's fine.
ammubarak said:
The backup image is stored in TWRD directory with the data and time name. Rename it as your stock Tom for future use.
The contents of the backup as a defualt has ROM and your application if you did not change parameters
Regards
Sent from my GT-S5830 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cruel91 said:
Just remind you that I have got a weird issue that some of my games does show their icons and when I type to them it says something like "Cannot load, restart Go Launcher" ( I use Go Launcher). I found no way to restart my launcher so that I just reinstall them and it's fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the replies, but they don't answer my questions.
ontwowheels said:
Rooted 6.2.2, TWRP installed. I ran backup of the stock ROM, before I install a different ROM like CM7 or the ICS that is being developed do I need to copy that backup off the Fire? After the new ROM has been flashed, does that backup stay on the Fire or does the flashing process wipe it out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The backups go to /sdcard/TWRP/backups/...
Unless you wipe your SDCARD they should not be touched.
You can always, copy them onto your computer if you want... which would be useful if you had to like replace the hardware and wanted to restore it onto the new hardware.
Also, after restoring that backup......am I completely at the point when I took the backup? Data, apps, etc should be just as they were when I took the backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on what you backed up (What options you chose).
krelvinaz said:
The backups go to /sdcard/TWRP/backups/...
Unless you wipe your SDCARD they should not be touched.
You can always, copy them onto your computer if you want... which would be useful if you had to like replace the hardware and wanted to restore it onto the new hardware.
Depends on what you backed up (What options you chose).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks....any suggestions on the options? Select all of them I assume? lol
Just like an image taken on a computer, when I restore it, I would want to be at the exact point where the image was taken. System, apps, data, etc.
the answer to ontwowheels question isn't truly answered yet. Like him, i'm rooted, with TWRP, and trying things out. i'd very much like to try MIUI but its not clear if i can completely revert back to stock Kindle [admittedly there are several conveniences i like about but unfortunately it aint a-la-carte unless i foolishly dive in making my own ROM!]. Can someone please provide some guidance as to what must be backed up to restore stock kindle again, just as i left it [settings, preferences, apps, registration with amazon and market, etc] or if that's even possible, or what won't be restored. i'm not a developer and i hesitate to go with trial and error
thank you very much for your patience
mebobbob said:
the answer to ontwowheels question isn't truly answered yet. Like him, i'm rooted, with TWRP, and trying things out. i'd very much like to try MIUI but its not clear if i can completely revert back to stock Kindle [admittedly there are several conveniences i like about but unfortunately it aint a-la-carte unless i foolishly dive in making my own ROM!]. Can someone please provide some guidance as to what must be backed up to restore stock kindle again, just as i left it [settings, preferences, apps, registration with amazon and market, etc] or if that's even possible, or what won't be restored. i'm not a developer and i hesitate to go with trial and error
thank you very much for your patience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To restore stock just use TWRP to flash the update.zip found on amazon. Once you download it, you will have to rename it to whatever.ZIP instead or whatever.BIN. Once that's done, go to settings on the stock ROM and hit device, then factory reset and you should be good to go

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