Database Users

best back up method

i am about to try another rom, so which back up method will restore the most info
looking at apps/ accounts/ contacts/ games saves etc etc
i have titainuim back up also have clockwork or is there a better back up method that will make my phone like it is now but on a new rom(where i will most likley have to do data/cache wipes before i install it)
thanks for any help

combat goofwing said:
i am about to try another rom, so which back up method will restore the most info
looking at apps/ accounts/ contacts/ games saves etc etc
i have titainuim back up also have clockwork or is there a better back up method that will make my phone like it is now but on a new rom(where i will most likley have to do data/cache wipes before i install it)
thanks for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
short answer, no. The problem is if you restore the system settings and the framework is significantly changed you will end up with multiple Force closes, titanium backup will allow you to restore your apps with data but avoid restoring system data if possible (it is possible to create a flashable zip of titanium to flash from recovery so it's installed when you boot your new ROM) also ADW can save your desktop configuration and restore it and I use SMS backup/restore to restore my SMS's, your contacts etc should be catered for by google which will also try and restore some other settings and your apps.
BTW: Do a NANDROID backup before installing your new ROM, this is a snapshot of your system state which can be used to restore it to it's current state should the new ROM not be to your taste

with a new rom, i suggest just installing everything afresh so there are no compaibility problems. I imagine with titanium backup you could restore savegames

ghostofcain said:
short answer, no. The problem is if you restore the system settings and the framework is significantly changed you will end up with multiple Force closes, titanium backup will allow you to restore your apps with data but avoid restoring system data if possible (it is possible to create a flashable zip of titanium to flash from recovery so it's installed when you boot your new ROM) also ADW can save your desktop configuration and restore it and I use SMS backup/restore to restore my SMS's, your contacts etc should be catered for by google which will also try and restore some other settings and your apps.
BTW: Do a NANDROID backup before installing your new ROM, this is a snapshot of your system state which can be used to restore it to it's current state should the new ROM not be to your taste
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whats nandroid?
so when people are flashing a rom every other day they are having to reinstall everything???

panyan said:
with a new rom, i suggest just installing everything afresh so there are no compaibility problems. I imagine with titanium backup you could restore savegames
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Click to collapse
this is what i want to do too. Install all apps from the market fresh, but use titanium to restore any data associated with the apps.
However im not sure which setting to use in titanium. When i click batch, there's 100 options. If i choose "Backup all system data", will this restore only the data like gamesaves etc?

combat goofwing said:
whats nandroid?
so when people are flashing a rom every other day they are having to reinstall everything???
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Click to collapse
No, as a rule if you are installing the same type of ROM ie aosp you don't have to wipe so everything should be retained, if swapping between different types of ROM ie aosp - sense then a wipe and subsequent reinstall is required
As for Nandroid its the backup option in recovery console and it takes a snapshot of the current ROM which if you where to restore would put your system back to its current state

[Q] hand holding needed for changing ROMs

I have not changed ROMs before. IMHO the procedure is simple enough. I am not worried about that step at all. The question is, What am I left with afterward.
What data, apps, etc. do I loose? Do I need to recover them from a back up? If so, what parts do I need to recover?
Also, from what I have read, if the ROMs are closely related, all the data and apps are preserved.
Can some one explain/comment on this?
I know this is a very nubbie question. I'm trying to minimize time consuming mistakes.

U should always wipe data with changing roms or u might end up with lots of fcs. While all the roms are similar and contain the same basic apps, some roms are gonna have different and new apps than others. I recomend backing up the apps that u have on ur current rom with TB and once u install a different rom, all u have to do is download TB from the market and install the apps u once backed up
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

So all the apps I downloaded from market will then need to be reinstalled.
Do I loose the phone logs, all texts, contacts (but linked to gmail)?
I am unclear what "data" is stored where. What counts are "data" in the backups. Is application data backed up with "data", or included w/ the "apps" backup?
I am backed up with TB. (both data and apps).
I have also backed w/ CWM.
I assume/hope my identity (phone#, etc.) is tied to something like a MAC address that will not be wiped.

your identity is not wiped, are you using a sprint phone?

You should backup 2 ways at least, a nandroid with CWM and maybe Titanium Backup. Then follow the instructions of the ROM you are installing. Most no longer require wipes. After you flash the ROM if something did not restore properly just shut down, boot into CWM. Go to backup and restore, go to advanced restore data from your last backup. All should be restored.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I am on Sprint.
I am a bit confused on the CWM recovery, never having actually used it to restore anything. When i go to the restore utility in CWM, I see each of the backups listed. Not sure if I get the option of what to restore.
I may or may not want to restore the old ROM depending on the outcome of the new ROM flash.

But since u gonna issues TB all u have to do is jst download it from the market and the reinstall the apps u want back. U see, instead of searching for them on the market, u can jst install them from TB. And u won't losse contacts or emails if u sync them with gmail
labumm said:
So all the apps I downloaded from market will then need to be reinstalled.
Do I loose the phone logs, all texts, contacts (but linked to gmail)?
I am unclear what "data" is stored where. What counts are "data" in the backups. Is application data backed up with "data", or included w/ the "apps" backup?
I am backed up with TB. (both data and apps).
I have also backed w/ CWM.
I assume/hope my identity (phone#, etc.) is tied to something like a MAC address that will not be wiped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone is Captivating, Fascinating, Epic and also LEGENDARY!!

If you are changing ROMs on the same version of firmware, like Gingerbread to Gingerbread, you can backup right before flashing (and you should), then when you flash the new ROM it may or may not preserve your data which is apps, contacts, call logs...IF it fails to restore properly you can do a factory data reset in CWM which will clean any bad restore, then do an ADVANCED RESTORE DATA and pick the newest one. They are date coded. It will ask you to confirm before doing it. This will only restore 3rd party apps and data like call logs, wifi links, email accounts and stuff like that.

The deed is done. The SMS messages do not restore. I tried to pick and choose apps to restore. Then restored all data.
The phone is functional, however. That was my main concern.
Thanks to all who read and responded.
now CleanGB 18

Duh.
Needed to reboot for all restored settings to appear.

To refresh, from what version did you move into? WHat do you have now?

labumm said:
Duh.
Needed to reboot for all restored settings to appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ha, was just about to tell you that. Glad you are up and running.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I am a tiny bit concerned that I have just restored a bunch of un-needed crap onto my phone, from the TB backup.
Anyone know what the colors and icons of the files in TB signify?
I was looking for help in the tiki, but I don't see a concise explanation.
http://matrixrewriter.com/wiki/tiki-index.php
I presume I would not accidently reinstall carrier IQ and other un-fixes unintentionally with TB by restoring apps and data.

[Q] what will happen to the paid app after flashing new rom

Some roms require a full wipe/factory reset before installing. Of course that will delete all apps including the one that I bought. Do I need to buy them again?
Also, will the 'titanium backup' backups the homescreen settings (i.e., the app shortcuts created on main screen)?

Your apps are attached to your gmail account, as long as you sign in on your device with the same account after flashing/wiping, you can redownload the paid apps.
Titanium backup by default will not backup homescreen settings, but if you manually backup the launcher and its data then it can restore the settings.
Sent from Sheogorath with cheese.

Yeap once you buy your apps, they're yours for good. You can sign in a whole different device and your apps in the play store still belong to you, you just open the playstore and click on the lil arrow thing up at the top for the "My Apps" page. It will open to your installed apps and if you swipe to view the page to the right it shows all apps, which includes any app you previously downloaded but isn't installed.
And also when you wipe data and install a new rom, It will have you sign into your google account in the setup process right after the wifi connection screen. Once setup is complete and you're all booted up, if you just leave the tablet alone and let it settle a few minutes, it's going to automatically install all the apps you had installed on your last rom from the play store, unless you've changed the default backup/restore settings.
Make sure with titanium backup, you NEVER install system apps, which are the red ones. You can set the filter to User apps only before backing up your apps. Then you'll load the rom and complete the setup and let it settle while it installs all the apps it's going to from the play store. Then you can just batch restore any missing apps. I would batch restore the apps only, and then go back and restore only the app data that you actually need. For instance you may want to restore a game with a thousand levels of progress, but don't restore app data just to keep from typing a username and password into an app one time which takes about four seconds.
I help a lot of new guys get started wiping, installing roms, and setting up and try to teach them along the way. I let them learn instead of doing it for them. Here's what I've found to be the best way to learn.
Make a nandroid backup of current setup. Then wipe data, cache, dalvic cache, and system, install the rom and gapps, and reboot and setup. Once it's setup let it settle in and sync and all that good stuff. You want the boxes asking if you want to back up the tablet and restore to the tablet in the setup process both checked.
After you've booted, set up, and let all the apps install that it's going to install, then reboot into recovery and make another nandroid backup, if using TWRP you can name it like "ExampleRom_B4Titanium." Now you've got a clean nandroid backup of the rom setup, and you can start playing with titanium backup and if you accidentally do something that causes problems, you can just wipe everything and restore that clean nandroid backup you made prior to Titanium.

Backing up things before flashing roms

I know that we need to wipe everything before flashing a rom. I was just wondering what you guys do to make it easier to restore everything such as apps and the homescreen/widgets layout I already have (I'm using nova launcher btw).
I spend too much time trying to make everything perfect and when I find a new rom I want to try I don't want to have to go through the trouble of setting it up all again.

jlim0512 said:
I know that we need to wipe everything before flashing a rom. I was just wondering what you guys do to make it easier to restore everything such as apps and the homescreen/widgets layout I already have (I'm using nova launcher btw).
I spend too much time trying to make everything perfect and when I find a new rom I want to try I don't want to have to go through the trouble of setting it up all again.
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Click to collapse
Titanium Backup to backup and restore apps. It will save the app data as well so you won't lose game save progress, carefully customized settings, etc. as you would if you just restored from the play store after resynching your account. Buy a pro key, its worth the few bucks for fully automated app restore, otherwise when you go to restore all of your apps you will have to sit there and tap accept on every single one when it tries to install them all (at least that part is still automated).
Nova launcher has a backup and restore function in Nova settings. Make sure the check box to restore widget's faster is checked. Restores wallpaper, widgets, layout, settings, etc.
Before you wipe and flash, back up user apps (NOT system data too, just apps) and back up nova settings. Then reboot to recovery, wipe/flash/reboot. Log in to play store and download Titanium Backup first, and nothing else. Stop the play store from redownloading all of your apps if it starts that process because they won't have all of your data from before. Once TiBu is installed, batch restore all of your apps. Then, go in to nova settings and restore they back up you made.
Fully automated, couldn't be any easier with TiBu Pro and nova backup/restore.

Thank you!

Different Backup Methods

I was hoping to learn the differences between certain backup methods. The most common i saw is via recovery (in my case twrp), via titanium backup and another via adb command even without root which i saw in one of the threads here in xda.
First, in terms of "backup coverage" how do they compare to one another? Secondly, which among the three would most put ur phone back the way it was before u wipe or factory reset it
I hope you could input your opinions on this and suggestions.
Thanks in advance!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

A backup through recovery is a called a nandroid. This backs up everything on your phone including your ROM, kernel, apps, settings, etc. This will allow you to restore back to the previous state of your phone after doing a full wipe.
Titanium backup only backs up your apps and app data. This is useful when you want to switch ROMs and restore your apps in the new ROM.
Usually when switching ROMs I first use titanium backup, then I create a nandroid backup, and finally I flash the ROM. If I like the ROM I use titanium to restore the apps that I previously backed up, and if I don't like the ROM I restore my nandroid
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda app-developers app

Doing a backup with twrp, cwm or thru adb (nandroid backups) are basically image files of your phone at any given moment in time. If you restore one of these backups your restoring your phone to exactly how it was at that moment in time. Titanium backup and Helium backup just backup cached data at that particular moment in time. Using these apps will only restore the data you specified when you did the backup and nothing else. Say you borked an install of a ROM, Titanium backup would be of no use in getting your phone working again as it only has data and not a system image. You would need the images backed up by twrp to get the phone working again then you could use the titanium backups to restore any newer data saved if say you used an old twrp backup.

whoah! thanks guys! I was supposed to quote you but since both of you really helped me understand it now, this thanks goes to the both of you.
I've hit the thanks button on both you guys.
Thank you very much for explaining this.
One last thing, when using a Titanium backup ( im using the pro version), how do i backup to make sure I cover all that needs to be backed up? There are a lot of options im not sure which to select and what to do. I hope you could enlighten me on this one as well.
Thanks again in advance!

vinz_bangiz said:
whoah! thanks guys! I was supposed to quote you but since both of you really helped me understand it now, this thanks goes to the both of you.
I've hit the thanks button on both you guys.
Thank you very much for explaining this.
One last thing, when using a Titanium backup ( im using the pro version), how do i backup to make sure I cover all that needs to be backed up? There are a lot of options im not sure which to select and what to do. I hope you could enlighten me on this one as well.
Thanks again in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the pro version u can run a batch backup of all apps.
To do this open the app, press the menu button in the top tight corner, and select Batch.
Then choose Backup all user apps. From there you can select/deselect apps. When you are done choosing the apps that you would like to backup, click on the green check mark in the top right corner to start the backup.

vinz_bangiz said:
whoah! thanks guys! I was supposed to quote you but since both of you really helped me understand it now, this thanks goes to the both of you.
I've hit the thanks button on both you guys.
Thank you very much for explaining this.
One last thing, when using a Titanium backup ( im using the pro version), how do i backup to make sure I cover all that needs to be backed up? There are a lot of options im not sure which to select and what to do. I hope you could enlighten me on this one as well.
Thanks again in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stopped using Titanium and switched to Helium a while back and can't really remember how Ti works exactly. I do know you should never restore system apps data just user apps data so I don't even bother backing up systems apps. I think with Ti I would just do an initial backup of all user data and apps and then periodically do a backup of newer user data and apps, or something to that effect in the menu. I do like Helium better as its interface is better, never could figure out how to backup or restore sms, call logs and the dictionary using Ti. Helium is much more straight forward and simpler (not as many options) and it does backups on a set schedule to my box account. I'm sure you can do all that with Ti too it was just not a very clean app.

thanks again for the replies..
@ chromium96
i think it is the same as clicking the box with check icon beside the menu, it brings me to the page the same as where you are leading me to but in just one click. Though im not so sure if it is really the same one.
I did a backup now but made a user app + system data.
kzoodroid mentioned not to backup system. Should I really not backup the system? Im quite confused with the terminologies of TI coz it says backup "user apps". Does this only refer to the apps and not the settings or data in my phone? does the backup "system data" refer to the settings and other data on my phone? if I choose only backup "user apps", would this only backup the apps and nothing else?
@ kzoodroid
could you explain further why I should never backup systems apps?
Lastly, is Helium really better than TI? or it depends on user preference?
Thanks again!

there are 2 kind of apps stored in your phone, system apps, only accesible with root privilege, and user apps,
system apps are phone, browser,wallpapers, etc, this are the basic apps to make your phone to work
user apps are all the stuff you, the user, install on your phone
the first one can be found, via file managers on /system/app
user app in /data or in sdcard for apps can use this option
the user app back-up, via Tb or others create a back-up of /data and apps you choose to install
restoring a system app via Tb is dangerous cause if you've switched rom the /system/app can be different, so restoring can cause trouble or misbehavior on your phone
/system/app back.up can be used only if you, before deleting a system app, want to have a copy to restore in future, but only if you still on the same rom

stremax said:
there are 2 kind of apps stored in your phone, system apps, only accesible with root privilege, and user apps,
system apps are phone, browser,wallpapers, etc, this are the basic apps to make your phone to work
user apps are all the stuff you, the user, install on your phone
the first one can be found, via file managers on /system/app
user app in /data or in sdcard for apps can use this option
the user app back-up, via Tb or others create a back-up of /data and apps you choose to install
restoring a system app via Tb is dangerous cause if you've switched rom the /system/app can be different, so restoring can cause trouble or misbehavior on your phone
/system/app back.up can be used only if you, before deleting a system app, want to have a copy to restore in future, but only if you still on the same rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply! kinda getting an idea what you mean.. if I backup the system also, then i put a new rom and it may be different from my current roms system so it might mess it up. so just backup user app and restore this after installing new rom then it would be ok and back to how it was before i installed a new rom? Do i understand it right?

vinz_bangiz said:
Thanks for the reply! kinda getting an idea what you mean.. if I backup the system also, then i put a new rom and it may be different from my current roms system so it might mess it up. so just backup user app and restore this after installing new rom then it would be ok and back to how it was before i installed a new rom? Do i understand it right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right man,
only back-up user apps and data, if you like you can also back-up call log and messages, I usually do this, so when I flash a new rom I usually restore apps +apps data, messages and call log via Tb

vinz_bangiz said:
another via adb command even without root which i saw in one of the threads here in xda.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found the ADB backup doesn't work as well as the other methods. I found some apps didn't seem to get backed up, and at least one didn't work after restoring (though this could be because I used Titanium Backup to restore the app from the ADB backup file).