Database Users

[Q] Best way to switch builds and not loose everything

I am looking at switching builds but dont want to have to reinstall everything post the new build install on my sd card.
What back up system do people recommend, and do any actually allow a full backup/restore that will work?
If not then i will have to reinstall everything, but that seems a really long winded way about switching builds!
Thanks

I save the data .img file from the current build. Then I copy the new Android folder on the root of the mem stick. Then I put the data .img file from the old intall back in the new folder.

The above suggestion doesn't always work. If you're going to a completely different build then it may cause problems.
I use Titanium Backup Pro. It does cost, but not much and allows a full backup and restore of all apps and data.

i just use the free titanium backup to backup all my apps. google sync for contacts and then all i have to do it set up a couple of things like wifi and it work

I used to use the free version, but the last restore I did had nearly 200 apps in it, and you have to click "install" and then "ok" for every app with the free version. The paid one does it without you needing to do anything - that's the only reason I paid for it. (Oh, and it can freeze apps too, which is good for finding out what would happen if you uninstalled an app.)

[Q] Possible To Restore Apps, Without Titanium???

Hello everyone,
I'm not the type of person to ask for the answer and get the quick way out...I like to try and research, read and read more before asking for help.
Here is the problem:
Before I flashed my phone...I plugged in the usb and copied all folders and files on the SD card to a folder on my pc, just incase.
Then I followed the instruction to install a custom rom...I used Iced Glacier. I rebooted the phone and the Iced rom worked...after checking out the phone, to see what the Iced rom was all about, I realized I didnt use Ti to make a backup of all apps.
Here is the question:
Can I use the folders/files I copied to the pc, to add the apps back to the phone?
Thanks in advance for any help,
BK

Short answer is no...
If you had backup enabled with Google, your apps should auto install when you log into the market. Most of your data will be lost though...
Did you make a nandroid backup of your ROM? If you did, you could now backup your new install, restore your old system backup, use Titanium to backup everything from your old system backup, then switch back to your new install and use Titanium to restore everything...?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

First I want to thank you for taking out the time. I truly appreciate the help.
I read and re-read what you wrote...I kinda of understand but am not sure if the correct steps to take. When you get a chance, can you please try and explain further.
Thanks so much,
BK

What he is asking is did you make a backup of your stock rom before flashing ice-glacier? If so just go back into rom manager and restore your backup. After restoring, personally i prefer my backup root, because it backs up everything texts, bookmarks ect qnd it is one click for that stuff and one click for all your apps with their data instead of clicking once for each app. After doing your backup reflash I-G and redownload my backup root, run it and everything will be there

That's exactly what I meant...
Also, Titanium has a batch option in the menu, so you can one click backup and restore with Titanium also (you have to have the paid version for it to be effective, though)...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

thanks for the info...but have another question related to this.
I did make a backup before flashing...but here is the problems I'm trying to understand.
From what Im trying to gather about using custom roms, is that it does not install any bloatware.
So, if that is true and I use a app like backup root...will this just install every single app that was on the phone.
Im just trying to wrap my brain around this, sorry if it is very newbish
BK

fst2011 said:
From what Im trying to gather about using custom roms, is that it does not install any bloatware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on your definition of "bloat". Every ROM contains a collection of system applications.
Keep in mind. Nandroid backups are standalone system images. Titanium Backup and MyBackup and all the other Android apps that do backups are individual application backups. They often can do bulk restores, but that is not always desired or necessary.
You will find you will want both types of backup: Nandroid, and application.

You can also selectively backup and restore apps, so you get to chose what stays, and what goes...
Play around with Titanium and My Backup, and see what they are capable of...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

How do you restore your Settings/Apps after flashing? [UPDATE]

So,
now that the first usable ROMs for X8 pop up i am wondering: what is the easiest way to import all your settings to a new ROM?
i am thinking of Apps, App-Settings, Sync-Settings (gmail, Roadsync..), SMS, Mails etc etc...
Restoring/Setting this up manually after every installation of a new ROM takes some time.
What is your trick for the lazy people?
How much can be backed up with Titanium Backup? I'm still not sure about this.
What other Apps can you recommend?
update: found a solution at lifehacker today.

Non of them will work when going from ROM to ROM. When you go to a new ROM, you should backup the previous one so you can go back to the default when there is a problems with the Custom ROM.
Basically, you can't transfer apps or anything from one ROM to another. You will have to manually install them yourself, take a list of them and download/install again. I wish it could work but it cant ):

Too bad.
Ok, I cant backup apps this way.
Is there a way or script to automatically install apps (apks) from a folder on sdcard?
Maybe I could use AppBrain to sync apps.
But how about System Settings, Accounts...

Hm, actually come to think of it .. If your phone is rooted (obviously is lol) you can go to Root Explorer or any root application manager, go to System>App and if you can transfer them to your SD card, I use Root Explorer, just select all and zip them, then transfer to SD card .. All the .apk's will be in the zip file. I suppose just install one by one
As for system settings, accounts etc. those can't be backed up .. You'll just have to be updated manually :L Don't be lazy haha

just found this tip from lifehacker using titanium backup. looks pretty convinient.
if someone tries this, please report if you have success.

laureus said:
just found this tip from lifehacker using titanium backup. looks pretty convinient.
if someone tries this, please report if you have success.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use this, for me it's the best way.
Titanium backup can store all your current apps and data settings for theseapps, too.
After flashing your new ROM, install Titanium backup and restore your backuped apps. Works fine.

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

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).