Database Users

[Q] Need to update rooted T-Mobile G2

Rooted my G2 in December 2010 but did not install any custom ROMs on it. I have SuperUser and ClockWork Mod on it. The OTA 2.3.3 update finally made its way to my phone, but does not update because of root.
I have seen too many threads explaining how to update the phone, leaving me confused Can somebody please explain how to or point me to a relevant thread.
Thanks.

There are pre-rooted versions posted in Development. Just download from there, put on your SD card, and flash from ROM Manager. You are also S-Off?
If you install an official ROM, you lose root. You don't want that.

redpoint73 said:
You are also S-Off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I am S-Off

FullScreen57 said:
Yes, I am S-Off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1211143
bone stock pre-rooted OTA. Flash through CWM recovery. Doesn't replace Radio or anything. Its just a ROM.zip you can flash. Wipe data/factory reset before flashing of course.

Thanks redpoint73 and martonikaj for your help. I was able to update the ROM.
One last question for the folks here, I performed a Titanium Pro Backup before upgrading the ROM.
Which one of the following restores should I perform now that I have upgraded to 2.3.4?
1. Restore missing apps with data
2. Restore all system data
3. Restore missing apps + all system data
4. Restore newer versions of user apps
5. Restore all apps with data
Thanks.

FullScreen57 said:
Thanks redpoint73 and martonikaj for your help. I was able to update the ROM.
One last question for the folks here, I performed a Titanium Pro Backup before upgrading the ROM.
Which one of the following restores should I perform now that I have upgraded to 2.3.4?
1. Restore missing apps with data
2. Restore all system data
3. Restore missing apps + all system data
4. Restore newer versions of user apps
5. Restore all apps with data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually do 5. Restore all apps with data when moving to a new ROM. (never restore system data unless you're re-flashing the same ROM). I usually select it, then scroll through the list and uncheck some apps that may cause issues. Things like Clocks, Browsers, etc. often overwrite system-level apps and can cause problems. YMMV.
Its in your best interest to perform a nandroid backup before doing a big restore of 100's of apps, as there is a chance that there may be some problems or incompatibilities that cause issues, and you want to be able to go back to a state before installing all those apps to troubleshoot without having to re-flash the entire ROM.

nandroid + flashing/restoring across roms

I'm having a little trouble understanding nandroid vs. other forms of backup and would appreciate some clarification. I'm running CM nightly on my Fido (Canada) G4. I took a nandroid as well as titanium backup of the factory stock image before I flashed CM.
A poster in the last thread I made suggested if I wanted to restore to stock, I could simply restore the nandroid, but I've also seen people say you shouldn't use nandroid to go across ROMs. My understanding is that nandroid is like having a filesystem backup, which would obviously not react well if you restored it over a new operating system (e.g. two different versions of windows). Or is nandroid more like say Acronis, which takes an entire disk image and overwrites everything?
Other misc questions:
- If I do restore via nandroid, do I need to wipe all data / cache / system data before or after the restore?
- I assume I can use titanium to restore SMS + all non-system apps across ROMs, which would save a lot of time.
- If I'm going from one CM nightly to another, would titanium work for system apps (e.g. all my settings, or contacts, etc)
- If I want to flash a new CM nightly, do I need to follow the entire wipe procedure just as if it were going from one ROM to a completely different one?
Thanks!

always make a nandroid in recovery. i recommend keeping it on your micro sd card. in the event you need to return your device to it's previously functioning state, restore the nandroid in recovery. if you are running an aosp rom and your nandroid is touchwiz, wipe data, cache & dalvik before restoring the nandroid. if the backup is on your micro sd then feel free to wipe system as well.
if you want to flash a nightly or update to a rom you are currently running, simply wipe cache and dalvik then flash the update, gapps and any custom kernel that you may be running.
i cannot answer your titanium backup questions because i do not use that program

xBeerdroiDx said:
always make a nandroid in recovery. i recommend keeping it on your micro sd card. in the event you need to return your device to it's previously functioning state, restore the nandroid in recovery. if you are running an aosp rom and your nandroid is touchwiz, wipe data, cache & dalvik before restoring the nandroid. if the backup is on your micro sd then feel free to wipe system as well.
if you want to flash a nightly or update to a rom you are currently running, simply wipe cache and dalvik then flash the update, gapps and any custom kernel that you may be running.
i cannot answer your titanium backup questions because i do not use that program
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, that's about what I have. ok, thank you for the clarification of what to wipe! that's good to know.
re flashing a nightly/update: using your method should preserve system data yes? so no need to reinstall all apps or system data?
and thanks, I'll hold out hope that someone with titanium expertise will be able to answer that one

kabutar said:
re flashing a nightly/update: using your method should preserve system data yes? so no need to reinstall all apps or system data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, system/user data will remain. understand, however, that if you perform one of these dirty flashes and you have a problem with the functionality of the ROM, you'll need to do a full wipe and flash to see if this clears the issue before you report the problem in the development thread.

kabutar said:
yes, that's about what I have. ok, thank you for the clarification of what to wipe! that's good to know.
re flashing a nightly/update: using your method should preserve system data yes? so no need to reinstall all apps or system data?
and thanks, I'll hold out hope that someone with titanium expertise will be able to answer that one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your right on both titanium questions.. However its not recommended to restore system apps you backed up on a aokp/aosp ROM to a touchwiz ROM and the other way around... Other than that like I said your fine
Sent from my WANAM'ED AT&T S4

[Q] TWRP Recovery- How to use?

So I am currently on Paranoid Android and wish to switch to another ROM (most likely AOKP or PACman just to try). In TWRP recovery, what would I select to just back up my app data and NOT my ROM, and after that is possible, what must I restore to get it back and in what order of flashing alon with my new ROM and GAPPS???:silly:

You can go into TWRP and backup and choose what partitions you want to backup. However, I'd suggest you backup everything and don't try to restore the data to another ROM.
I use Titanium to backup all app data as well as MMS history, WiFi networks etc then do a full backup in TWRP. Then wipe everything and flash the new ROM. Then boot up and reconfigure accounts and restore apps + data with titanium.
It may be a little more effort but this way you can always roll back to the previous setup if anything goes wrong and you're less likely to run into any weird issues from moving data around between ROMs.
Or you could try something like app2zip off the play store to make a flashable zip of only selected apps and data which is probably safer than the whole partition. If you do a full backup first you can always rollback if something goes wrong.

When using Titanium Backup, when I hit run backup, where does it go and how do I restore it after I flash my new ROM. Or do I do the update.zip option and flash that when I'm doing my new ROM?

GraysonB said:
When using Titanium Backup, when I hit run backup, where does it go and how do I restore it after I flash my new ROM. Or do I do the update.zip option and flash that when I'm doing my new ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It goes into a folder on /sdcard called TitaniumBackup. When you flash a new rom, you will need to redownload titanium backup. When you redownload it, it will find the backups and you can click on the app to restore it.
Theres no need to use the update.zip method. Do it like this ^

[Q] How do I revert to stock?

I'm a newbie when it comes to all things Android. I have a T-Mobile Galaxy Note 4 which I've rooted.
I've installed a flashable zip via TWRP and I think it may be causing some problems. Due to lack of forsight, I did not make a backup.
So, how do I get everything back to stock so I can start from scratch and make a backup the right way? Can I use the factory reset option in TWRP?
The zip I flashed was supposed to unlock my wifi tethering, but it didn't work. I think it altered some system files.. If I use TWRP which boxes would i want checked?

Reflash stock rom of your device. It will be back to complete stock with no root what so ever
Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

lmills.117 said:
I'm a newbie when it comes to all things Android. I have a T-Mobile Galaxy Note 4 which I've rooted.
I've installed a flashable zip via TWRP and I think it may be causing some problems. Due to lack of forsight, I did not make a backup.
So, how do I get everything back to stock so I can start from scratch and make a backup the right way? Can I use the factory reset option in TWRP?
The zip I flashed was supposed to unlock my wifi tethering, but it didn't work. I think it altered some system files.. If I use TWRP which boxes would i want checked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset does not help to revert back to stock.
Install Phone INFO ★Samsung★ app > Menu > 'Firmware Browser' to find and download stock firmware for your device.
Then boot into download mode and flash via Odin software.

vndnguyen said:
Factory reset does not help to revert back to stock.
Install Phone INFO ★Samsung★ app > Menu > 'Firmware Browser' to find and download stock firmware for your device.
Then boot into download mode and flash via Odin software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just checked it out on the Play store; looks like it redirects to sammobile for firmware downloads. I already tried to download my firmware via sammobile on the PC and it seems like the link is currently broken. However, I found it over on samsung-updates. Hopefully that's a reputable site as well.
My plan is to re-flash with stock, re-root, install TWRP, and then immediately make a backup. Is that a solid plan, or should I use titanium backup before/instead of TWRP backup?
Also, are the default options in TWRP backup good enough? Is Titanium backup redundant if I use TWRP?

A TWRP makes a full backup of the ROM, so its more useful if you mess up and its is highly recommended you make one.
Titanium Backup is useful if you wanna change ROMs, but keep your apps and app data

Tom540 said:
A TWRP makes a full backup of the ROM, so its more useful if you mess up and its is highly recommended you make one.
Titanium Backup is useful if you wanna change ROMs, but keep your apps and app data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So for example, let's say that I want to install some mods on top of the stock firmware (like this one that supposedly unlocks my wifi tethering). But then I change my mind and I want to revert back to stock -- I can restore my TWRP backup to revert back to before the mods were installed (with default backup options checked?) and then use titanium backup to restore my apps and app data?
What exactly happens if I back up with TWRP using default options and then restore? What will be different? I'm assuming that all of the apps that I installed since the backup will no longer be there?

lmills.117 said:
So for example, let's say that I want to install some mods on top of the stock firmware (like this one that supposedly unlocks my wifi tethering). But then I change my mind and I want to revert back to stock -- I can restore my TWRP backup to revert back to before the mods were installed (with default backup options checked?) and then use titanium backup to restore my apps and app data?
What exactly happens if I back up with TWRP using default options and then restore? What will be different? I'm assuming that all of the apps that I installed since the backup will no longer be there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep you are correct! Restoring the TWRP backup will restore the ROM, data, apps etc that were there when you made the backup; you can, however, use TB to backup any apps or data and then restore them when you restore the TWRP backup

Tom540 said:
Yep you are correct! Restoring the TWRP backup will restore the ROM, data, apps etc that were there when you made the backup; you can, however, use TB to backup any apps or data and then restore them when you restore the TWRP backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I just re-flashed the stock firmware and all of my apps are still there. The recovery mode went back to stock so I put TWRP back on. Then I rooted again and TWRP was gone again! What is going on..

lmills.117 said:
Just checked it out on the Play store; looks like it redirects to sammobile for firmware downloads. I already tried to download my firmware via sammobile on the PC and it seems like the link is currently broken. However, I found it over on samsung-updates. Hopefully that's a reputable site as well.
My plan is to re-flash with stock, re-root, install TWRP, and then immediately make a backup. Is that a solid plan, or should I use titanium backup before/instead of TWRP backup?
Also, are the default options in TWRP backup good enough? Is Titanium backup redundant if I use TWRP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In short, TWRP creates a backup of whole partition, e.g system partition - where Android OS is stored, userdata partition - where user data is stored (including all installed apps and their data, settings), etc...
While Titanium creates a backup of individual apps inside the userdata partition.

Installing CM 12.1 over stock without loosing data?

Is this possible? Im familar with extracting bootloader, radio, system and boot img's from the factory image zip then using fastboot to install while keeping all settings and data. Can I do this to install Cyanogen or will it break everything?

What type of data are you talking about?
If you are talking about apps and app data, then I don't think this is possible. All your data (pictures, music, and other files/ folders) on the second partition (other than device) would be intact even if you do factory reset from recovery.

First this is a question, you are in the wrong sub forum. Second, system apps you can forget. But user apps (those you install), just backup with titanium Backup and restore after installing a new rom. I do this every time I change roms

dcop7 said:
First this is a question, you are in the wrong sub forum. Second, system apps you can forget. But user apps (those you install), just backup with titanium Backup and restore after installing a new rom. I do this every time I change roms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I thought that there would be too many differences between stock and CM especially gapps. Think I will need to do a clean install from TWRP to have CM12.

What are the bugs of CM12?
Sorry for my bad English