Database Users

Accessing files in a Nandroid backup?

Hi,
Probably a silly question, but is there a way of accessing some of the files in a nandroid backup? I recently flashed a new ROM and in preparation I completely re-formatted my sdcard. I did take the precaution of doing a nandroid backup but I didn't copy over an important folder - my holiday snaps.
Now, rather than nandroid restore completely, I'm just wondering if there is a way of opening the file and extracting just what I need?
Thanks

Nandroid only back-ups your system files on the phone not the SD card. If you think about it, it is backing up to the SD card so if your holiday snaps were stored on your card you will have lost them.

Aha! Yes, of course. Bottoms!

Recovering files from SD
stupid suggestion but did you try a program that undeletes/retrieves data from memory cards?

No, I've moved on and, formatted Fat32/Ext3/Linux-Swap and flashed a new ROM
I'll just say I deleted the piccies by mistake and take the flak from the missus.
Thanks all.

palexr said:
No, I've moved on and, formatted Fat32/Ext3/Linux-Swap and flashed a new ROM
I'll just say I deleted the piccies by mistake and take the flak from the missus.
Thanks all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the portion of the SD card your photos were sitting on hasn't been over written yet by new data, a recover program may work. The longer you use the card the less likely you are to recover them.

Using Apps on SD with 2 different ROMS

Been searching for a while but am confused. Never needed to use my external SD on vibrant until recently. Now I have a question. I have two different ROM versions on my phone and I use ROM manager to keep them backed up and I use restore to go from one to the other.
The question is, now that I had to move some apps to my sd card (using Apps2SD), what happens when I switch ROMS by using restore?
Do I need two different partitions on the SD card, one for each ROM? If so how do I do this, and how do I know which partition each ROM will use?
I have read many warnings about partitioning using ROM Manager so I am kind of leary of using it.
Can anyone explain this to me? Never thought about it before because the Vibrant has so much memory available.
Thanks.

Any ideas?
I'm sure lots of people have done this before, just not me.
Can anyone explain this to me please?
Thanks in advance.

rblancrt said:
The question is, now that I had to move some apps to my sd card (using Apps2SD), what happens when I switch ROMS by using restore?
Do I need two different partitions on the SD card, one for each ROM? If so how do I do this, and how do I know which partition each ROM will use?
I have read many warnings about partitioning using ROM Manager so I am kind of leary of using it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have NEVER heard good things about partitioning your SD card with ROM mgr. NOt sure why you would anyways. The internal is already partitioned anyway. That is why we have a phone marketed with 16gb internal but when you pull settings>sdcard it shows only 14gb. Where are the other 2gb at? There are already partitioned to put your apps there. Use Root Explored and go to /Data, /datadata/, /dalvik-cache and you'll notice that they are all the same size-nearly 2 gb. Viola!!!
As far as restoring. I don't use native App2sd but I know how it works. W/o getting too technical, it puts part of the app's apk (executable functions and data) in a folder called .androidsecure on your sdcard (if you want to view this folder, you have to plug into PC and make sure Hidden Files are viewable). Now to your question. Whenever I have backed up, I always see at the end when it is cycling through your partitons (/system, /data,...) it says something like "backing up .androidsecure"-file not found*b/c I don't use it is why it isn't found. So you can back that up if there is something in it, flash new ROM redownload your apps and move to App2sd, back up and when you restore it should restore the .androidsecure partition.
Sorry for the long response but you asked two questions there. Now for my question. How many friggin apps do you have to fill up everything and bleed over into the app2sd part too? Does your phone lag? How is battery life?

Using App 2 SD Pro
Perhaps I didn't give enough info, but I am using an app, called App 2 SD Pro, to move apps back and forth to and from SD card.
It shows Moveable = 98, on SD card = 17, and phone only = 98, so I suppose it have 213 if it is correct.
Thanks for the info about restoring. I will have to study your answer in more detail before I can give any more answers, or ask any further questions.

re download my apps
Part of your answer above was redownload my apps.
Don't want to do that. If I move some of my apps to the sd card using the app "App 2 SD Pro" and then do a backup using ROM manager, then restore another ROM using ROM Manager, which also has apps on the sd card, what happens to them?
I have done this and it seemed to me that some of the apps which had been moved to the sd card did not show up on the restored ROM.
This is why I asked about partitioning, maybe using one section of the external sd card for one ROM and one section for the other.

S4 Backup

So im new to android and ofcourse, came from iphone, and was able to just "backup" to icloud...
my contacts are already synced via google... i assume (dont have the phone yet) that photos and music, videos etc can all go on the mirco sd, then the phone is just for apps... so is something like titanium backup all i need? and does it save the backup to my micro sd incase something happens and i need to reset the phone with that backup?
is that the basics of it?
thanks!

JL84 said:
So im new to android and ofcourse, came from iphone, and was able to just "backup" to icloud...
my contacts are already synced via google... i assume (dont have the phone yet) that photos and music, videos etc can all go on the mirco sd, then the phone is just for apps... so is something like titanium backup all i need? and does it save the backup to my micro sd incase something happens and i need to reset the phone with that backup?
is that the basics of it?
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Contacts and wifi access points and passwords are backed up to Google. TiBu will back up as much as much or as little as you want. And you can choose the location like Google drive or your sd card. Carbon Is good backup option too. and there is no need to be rooted
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

siciesp fletcher
joshyy_rey said:
Contacts and wifi access points and passwords are backed up to Google. TiBu will back up as much as much or as little as you want. And you can choose the location like Google drive or your sd card. Carbon Is good backup option too. and there is no need to be rooted
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the heads up. cant wait to dive in on tuesday!

JL84 said:
thanks for the heads up. cant wait to dive in on tuesday!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For Titanium Backup you need to have ROOT ACCESS
Like itunes and the iPhone, that's how the Galaxy and Samsung Kies is. You can completely backup your phone through Kies as well. If you care about warranty, you should root right now until they figure out how t unlock the bootloader and triangle away any history of you modding your phone just to be safe.

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Workaround for Ext-SD

My last phone had no internal SD, and no problems.. The G3 has an internal sd and I cannot write to External at all due to some sort of security feature -- even with root. In Xplore File Manager it has a workaround to transfer files to the Android/data folder, but I didn't realize and made a nandroid backup to Ext-SD in TWRP before trying my first rom and nothing was written and no error given, thus losing all my data (Luckily I made a stock backup and copied to PC for archive before any modding).
Is there a way to unlock this "feature" on the G3 or is my external sd basically useless? This was one of the main selling points vs the Nexus for me.. Really disappointed.

NFleck said:
My last phone had no internal SD, and no problems.. The G3 has an internal sd and I cannot write to External at all due to some sort of security feature -- even with root. In Xplore File Manager it has a workaround to transfer files to the Android/data folder, but I didn't realize and made a nandroid backup to Ext-SD in TWRP before trying my first rom and nothing was written and no error given, thus losing all my data (Luckily I made a stock backup and copied to PC for archive before any modding).
Is there a way to unlock this "feature" on the G3 or is my external sd basically useless? This was one of the main selling points vs the Nexus for me.. Really disappointed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use xposed framework module kitkat sd card full access
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Free mobile app

That's it? Amazing, thank you for the quick response and sorry for being to lazy to search.. Was at work and just popped into my head to ask.
Edit: are you using it on your g3? Some comments say it doesn't work on 4.4 and to use foldermount instead.. I know were still on 4.2 on the 852, but if ill need to switch again id rather use the most permanent fix available.
I'm going to try this regardless, just curious what everyone uses to work around this.. Also, what xplore app do you use to utilize this fix. Not seeing an "official" xplore app.
Its funny, on the main display card in phone dealers it says memory upgradable to 128gb.. I find it humorous that your average person would not be able to easily use it without being savvy with computer/phone tweaking.. Ran into a similar issue on my roommates xperia j, forcing me to try apps like app2sd which did not work well at all either -- very frustrating to say the least. I honestly fail to see the reasoning for the complexity here as you can easily have multiple storage mediums on a computer.. This "security feature" makes no sense to me. Lol
Edit: I need to rely more on google than asking redundant questions. For future reference, googling "xposed framework installer" yielded a result for the main XDA thread for it.. *facepalm*

Moving apps to SD in Marshmallow

So I finally made the leap from Lollipop to Marshmallow. Everything has been going fine for the most part, but I've hit a huge snag: moving apps to SD.
I use Titanium Backup to keep a full backup of my phone on the external SD card. I depend on this backup for two purposes:
1) it makes updating the ROM (like this time) a lot easier. I do a factory reset, get the base Android going, re-install Titanium Backup from the Play Store, point it to my backups on the external SD card, and then I'm good to restore (either full app+data if that's safe, or I first re-install the app from the Play Store then just restore the app's data using TB).
2) It saves my butt in the event of a phone hardware failure, which has happen several times over my many years as an Android user. I just buy a replacement phone, move the SD card over, and restore my apps/data in a similar manner as in #1.
I have a Galaxy S5 with 16GB of internal storage, which is certainly not enough so I depend on my 64GB external SD card greatly. Between keeping all my large media on the external SD, as well as moving what large apps to SD as I can, this has been fine. I use Bliss ROM.
So make the jump from Android 5 -> 6, and finally get to the point where I need to move some of the apps I've restored to SD... but can't find the option. I do some research, and now am in a panic. From what I can tell, you can only move apps to SD if you use the SD as adopted/internal storage, which means it gets re-formatted, encrypted, and can only be used with that phone. This eliminates the possibility of #1 & #2 above. To continue performing #1 & #2, I need to use the SD as "portable storage" (the way it is now), which apparently leaves no way to move apps to SD.
I am in a pickle now, and feel stuck. I'm hoping I'm missing another option. Help?

sremick said:
So I finally made the leap from Lollipop to Marshmallow. Everything has been going fine for the most part, but I've hit a huge snag: moving apps to SD.
I use Titanium Backup to keep a full backup of my phone on the external SD card. I depend on this backup for two purposes:
1) it makes updating the ROM (like this time) a lot easier. I do a factory reset, get the base Android going, re-install Titanium Backup from the Play Store, point it to my backups on the external SD card, and then I'm good to restore (either full app+data if that's safe, or I first re-install the app from the Play Store then just restore the app's data using TB).
2) It saves my butt in the event of a phone hardware failure, which has happen several times over my many years as an Android user. I just buy a replacement phone, move the SD card over, and restore my apps/data in a similar manner as in #1.
I have a Galaxy S5 with 16GB of internal storage, which is certainly not enough so I depend on my 64GB external SD card greatly. Between keeping all my large media on the external SD, as well as moving what large apps to SD as I can, this has been fine. I use Bliss ROM.
So make the jump from Android 5 -> 6, and finally get to the point where I need to move some of the apps I've restored to SD... but can't find the option. I do some research, and now am in a panic. From what I can tell, you can only move apps to SD if you use the SD as adopted/internal storage, which means it gets re-formatted, encrypted, and can only be used with that phone. This eliminates the possibility of #1 & #2 above. To continue performing #1 & #2, I need to use the SD as "portable storage" (the way it is now), which apparently leaves no way to move apps to SD.
I am in a pickle now, and feel stuck. I'm hoping I'm missing another option. Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I've read there is a method for app2sd to work with mm. I never had success with it though, and downgraded to ll.

ldeveraux said:
From what I've read there is a method for app2sd to work with mm. I never had success with it though, and downgraded to ll.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A method other than formatting the card as internal/adopted storage? Did the method involve setting up multiple partitions?
While I could set up a FAT32 partition just for TB, then adopt the rest, my backups aren't the only thing I've needed to access after popping out the SD card. For example, just being able to load media that way is quick and sometimes a life-saver. I've also used that as a way to get zip files on that I could then flash via recovery. I'm also not clear if you can "mount" adopted storage as USB while in recovery so it's visible to the computer as a USB mass-storage device while the phone is connected via USB cable (as you have been able to do normally up to this point).

sremick said:
A method other than formatting the card as internal/adopted storage? Did the method involve setting up multiple partitions?
While I could set up a FAT32 partition just for TB, then adopt the rest, my backups aren't the only thing I've needed to access after popping out the SD card. For example, just being able to load media that way is quick and sometimes a life-saver. I've also used that as a way to get zip files on that I could then flash via recovery. I'm also not clear if you can "mount" adopted storage as USB while in recovery so it's visible to the computer as a USB mass-storage device while the phone is connected via USB cable (as you have been able to do normally up to this point).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not the app developer, I have no clue how/if it works. It didn't for me, but did for many others. Go to that thread and read up!

ldeveraux said:
I'm not the app developer, I have no clue how/if it works. It didn't for me, but did for many others. Go to that thread and read up!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which app/thread are you referring to? Or are you talking about Bliss ROM itself? I didn't post in that thread, as this issue seems generically Marshmallow-related, and not specific to Bliss.

sremick said:
Which app/thread are you referring to? Or are you talking about Bliss ROM itself? I didn't post in that thread, as this issue seems generically Marshmallow-related, and not specific to Bliss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a marshmallow problem, not Rom specific. In xda's app section there are threads for both link2sd (not working) and app2sd (works for some). Check those, I think that's where I saw the info.

Ok it wasn't easy but I think I've gotten my head wrapped around Apps2SD and have it working. I tried the free version, backed up my 64GB external SD, partitioned it with a 16GB f2fs partition (for moving/linking apps) and the remainder exfat (for using the way I've traditionally used it). Restored everything back to the exfat partition and fixed where BeyondPod and Titanium Backup were pointing to. Did a few test links and it seemed to be working although fumbling my way through was confusing at first as I didn't find a clear "how to". Ended up buying the Pro version of Apps2SD once I felt good that this was a workable solution.
I still get an error on boot about my SD being corrupt but I just need to search on that, I'm sure there's a simple fix somewhere.

sremick said:
Ok it wasn't easy but I think I've gotten my head wrapped around Apps2SD and have it working. I tried the free version, backed up my 64GB external SD, partitioned it with a 16GB f2fs partition (for moving/linking apps) and the remainder exfat (for using the way I've traditionally used it). Restored everything back to the exfat partition and fixed where BeyondPod and Titanium Backup were pointing to. Did a few test links and it seemed to be working although fumbling my way through was confusing at first as I didn't find a clear "how to". Ended up buying the Pro version of Apps2SD once I felt good that this was a workable solution.
I still get an error on boot about my SD being corrupt but I just need to search on that, I'm sure there's a simple fix somewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the consensus was to use NotifyClean (Xposed module) to eliminate that message at boot. :good: Everything still working for you otherwise? I was thinking of upgrading now, and think this might work too:
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html

sremick said:
Ok it wasn't easy but I think I've gotten my head wrapped around Apps2SD and have it working. I tried the free version, backed up my 64GB external SD, partitioned it with a 16GB f2fs partition (for moving/linking apps) and the remainder exfat (for using the way I've traditionally used it). Restored everything back to the exfat partition and fixed where BeyondPod and Titanium Backup were pointing to. Did a few test links and it seemed to be working although fumbling my way through was confusing at first as I didn't find a clear "how to". Ended up buying the Pro version of Apps2SD once I felt good that this was a workable solution.
I still get an error on boot about my SD being corrupt but I just need to search on that, I'm sure there's a simple fix somewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is f2fs and exfat supported by stock MM in Apps2SD? Got it formatted with fat32 and ext4.

ldeveraux said:
I think the consensus was to use NotifyClean (Xposed module) to eliminate that message at boot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ugh. I do not want to have to use Xposed.
Everything still working for you otherwise?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it was working just great... then I rebooted. Apparently some trouble getting the 2nd partition (fsfs, where the apps are being moved to) to mount at boot. Trying to sort it out in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/apps2sd-partition-sd-card-link-apps-to-t3122919
andacro said:
Is f2fs and exfat supported by stock MM in Apps2SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No idea, I never run stock.