Database Users

Nandroid backup

Is it possible to rename a folder created by a nandroid backup and still have it to work?
I have 3 or 4 roms backed up and it's geting difficult to remember which is which

poddo said:
Is it possible to rename a folder created by a nandroid backup and still have it to work?
I have 3 or 4 roms backed up and it's geting difficult to remember which is which
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it is possible.
I do this and it works:
\SDCard\nandroid\HT9APNT01015\ *custom named folders with img files inside*
Did you get that?

that's what I tried to do, but it seems nandroid didn't like its backups anymore after renaming the folders

when i 'Nandroid' restore the phone, do i have to reroot my phone? Or is root access still available? (Again, i'm new to the custom ROM world and getting familiair with the basics)

doing a nandroid backup is like creating an image of the phone software.
once you restore, your phone revert back being exactly the same as when you did the backup (rom wise, which includes root)

poddo said:
doing a nandroid backup is like creating an image of the phone software.
once you restore, your phone revert back being exactly the same as when you did the backup (rom wise, which includes root)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, i back-upped the phone after root was enabled, so it won't harm my root access.

poddo said:
that's what I tried to do, but it seems nandroid didn't like its backups anymore after renaming the folders
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm, that is weird. I wonder if it has to do with the type or version of recovery image you have. At the moment I have RA-hero-v1.6.2.
Just to be clear, if you don't rename the folders, it restores properly?

it does, just one time it happened the backup got corrupted and wouldn't let the phone boot after restore (I am using same recovery img as yours)
I'm going to try renaming the folders again later

I wish you luck! Could you please post back with the result? I am very curious.
In my ongoing travels on the internets I will keep an eye out for a possible solution.

looks like this time it worked.
for some reason nandroid it seems nandroid has an erratic behaviour from time to time.
first time I made a copy of my first (working) backup and I renamed it, nandroid won't let me load it (thus why I created this thread); yesterday, after working fine it created a corrupted backup and I had to reinstall cronos from scratch.
only difference between my first try renaming backup directories is that the first time I made the copy via windows, while the second time I did it through Astro.
I'm going to watch into this.
EDIT: k, sorted the renaming issue. nandroid simply won't handle folders with spaces in their name
still, a couple times nandroid produced corrupted backups and this is forcing me to backup 3 times in a row just to be sure. :/

poddo said:
looks like this time it worked.
for some reason nandroid it seems nandroid has an erratic behaviour from time to time.
first time I made a copy of my first (working) backup and I renamed it, nandroid won't let me load it (thus why I created this thread); yesterday, after working fine it created a corrupted backup and I had to reinstall cronos from scratch.
only difference between my first try renaming backup directories is that the first time I made the copy via windows, while the second time I did it through Astro.
I'm going to watch into this.
EDIT: k, sorted the renaming issue. nandroid simply won't handle folders with spaces in their name
still, a couple times nandroid produced corrupted backups and this is forcing me to backup 3 times in a row just to be sure. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you've found the issue! That is really weird about Nandroid creating corrupted backups...
It is so strange that using Windows (or not) creates or solves problems. I've read of instances where creating a goldcard with Win7 failed but WinXP worked.

Guys,... You using AmonRa yeah?.... It might be worth mentioning all your finds to the man Amon Ra himself,... Post something in the AmonRa thread, maybe there is something he can sort for future updates.

Extract/Restore SMS/MMS, Contacts/Call Log, and Launcher Config. From Nandroid Backup

I was using Nexus S i9020T, CM7 nightly (a few weeks old) and for some reason I wake up this morning and couldn't get past the CM7 "blue circle" screen booting. I had about a month old backup but I didn't want to lose any recent data so I made a Nandroid backup.
Normally, to restore SMS or MMS from an old backup, one can just restore the nandroid backup, use a third party SMS backup program to backup the data to sdcard or gmail, restore or install new rom, then restore the SMS from the third party backup software.
However, in my case, I had a nandroid with data on it that I wanted to keep but that wouldn't boot.
So I did some searching and others have had this problem before but I figured I'd put it here for others that may have the same problem. I am not taking credit for this I just found various pieces of info around the web.
The solution is to use a utility called unyaffs. Unyaffs will need cygwin.dll. Yaffs is the file system that CWM recovery nandroid backups are stored in. Windows cannot read or mount this file system AFAIK.
Instead of compiling unyaffs for windows and installing all of cygwin, just use the attached pre-compiled unyaffs.exe and cygwin.dll.
Here's the process:
To restore SMS/MMS from a nandroid backup using MS Windows:
place unyaffs.exe + cygwin.dll + data.img in a folder
open command prompt in this directory (shift+right click -> open comand window here)
type: unyaffs data.img
the contents of the data.img will be extracted to this folder. wait for extraction to complete
browse to \data\com.android.providers.telephony\databases in the extracted folders
copy mmssms.db, mmssms.db-shm, mmssms.db-wal to sdcard
use root explorer to copy these three files to \data\data\com.android.providers.telephony\databases
To restore contacts/call log from a nandroid backup:
repeat above process for \data\com.android.providers.contacts\databases
To restore launcher configuration (only for stock Gingerbread launcher):
repeat above process for \data\com.android.launcher\databases
Note: Be aware that replacing the existing files with those extracted from the backup will remove the existing data so if you're not 100% sure what you're doing, change the names to mmssms_OLD.db or otherwise back them up before pasting the files from the backup.
Edit: Just thought I'd add, I also came across an app called AppExtractor but, despite the good reviews, the SMS/MMS restore didn't work for me.

if you have titanium backup, it makes it a lot easier to restore specific items from Nandroid Backup

AllGamer said:
if you have titanium backup, it makes it a lot easier to restore specific items from Nandroid Backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work for migrating from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason?
I am going to give this one a try.
To the OP your a dead set legend! thank you
PS: Where the bloody hell is the thanks button on this forum? I can't find it

I will give it a try. Thanks.

where do i find data.img?

I'm on an SGS I9000 and made an SMS/MMS backup using titanium backup when I was on Gingerbread.
Now I've installed the "Onecosmic's ICS Port Android 4.0.3 RC3.1" and restoring the backup file using titanium (only data) makes my message app FC.
Jarmezrocks were you successful when restoring your SMS/MMS on ICS?
Does anyone knows how to restore them? From titanium backup I only have an *.apk.gz and *.properties files.
Thanks for any help.
Cheers

Excellent.. saved me a lot.. thanks for the tool

Great post. I wonder if there is a file extrator in Android like unyaffs?

I found out that you can restore SMS just by using Root Explorer.
The location is the same, just that the files are these ones:
mmssms.db
nwk_info.db
telephony.db
I tried and it worked only using RootExplorer and I extracted the files from data.ext4.rar

Does this need to be done using ADB? I have set a nandroid backup from a GB ROM and flashed ICS on the phone; however when I extract the data.img using unyaffs and browse to the mentioned directory, there are no db files whatsoever.
Could the nandroid backup be corrupted for some reason?
I am looking at the data\com.android.providers.contacts folder and I only see a lib folder with nothing on it.
Hidden system files are set to show BTW

I did this yesterday using Titanium Backup for my SMS/MMS
You need to go into Preferences and check the *Migrate system data [Experimental] option
Then you go to More - Extract from nandroid backup
There it is listed as Dialer Storage
You can probably do the Phone log this way to but I did look for it.
I would recommend you do a current backup of [SMS/MMS/APN] Dialer Storage before you attempt this.

Does this restore the whole smsmms database like with the sms.db file on the iPhone? I hate it when MyBackupPro has to restore my texts and the dates are all messed up and i've lost all my MMS'. And it restores them one by one, instead of just putting it in there all at once. Took me like an hour to restore everything.

I have an app for you.

I'd much rather save myself from all this tedious long-winded work and just use apk extractor to restore everything.

HAKA said:
I have an app for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Wish i've learned about this sooner. Would have saved me a lot of time.

This method doesn't work for me :/
I followed it exactly step by step but when I'm done and go to the Messages app, it's empty.
The same happens if I try it with appextractor or titanium backup.
I made the nandroid backup on CM7, and want to restore the messages to CM9+AOKP on ZTE Blade.

Thanks
THANK YOU !!!!
That was so helpful. I was migrating from GB to Nyx ICS RC5.0 yesterday and the application I used (super backup) failed to restore the Contacts.
Another app I used did that but missed allot of details (and also was damn slow).
I used your technique and it did the trick!!!
All data is there the same as I left it on CM7.2
You're the king
Thanks
[EDIT] just a correction Super Backup was able to restore the contacts but with missing details
It failed to restore the SMS
The other APP (forgot the name) restored the SMS (after ages) but contact associated with the SMS were completely messed up.

perfect
RichAP said:
I did this yesterday using Titanium Backup for my SMS/MMS
You need to go into Preferences and check the *Migrate system data [Experimental] option
Then you go to More - Extract from nandroid backup
There it is listed as Dialer Storage
You can probably do the Phone log this way to but I did look for it.
I would recommend you do a current backup of [SMS/MMS/APN] Dialer Storage before you attempt this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked perfectly for me, got all my sms messages back from my nandroid backup.
Thanks!

thanks!
RichAP said:
I did this yesterday using Titanium Backup for my SMS/MMS
You need to go into Preferences and check the *Migrate system data [Experimental] option
Then you go to More - Extract from nandroid backup
There it is listed as Dialer Storage
You can probably do the Phone log this way to but I did look for it.
I would recommend you do a current backup of [SMS/MMS/APN] Dialer Storage before you attempt this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this today when I had to reformat my phone because of a bootloop. I'm using an HTC Desire on MildWild. Worked perfectly for me and was able to restore my messages. Loads of thanks to you!

Thank you! This worked perfectly for me!

[Q] blobs in clockworkmod folder?

Hi everyone... enjoying my nexus 7, couldn't be any better...
Anyway, my question... I first heard of the blobs on my Asus transformer, and never really looked into them any further...
I noticed my storage going down quite a bit, and looked into why it was going down... in the clockworkmod folder there is the back folder, all fine, and the blobs folder... the blobs folder 2gb+ in there... can anyone tell me what the blobs folder is and what it does?
Thanks, Matt
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

The blobs folder contains portions of your CWM backups.
When you make a new backup, CWM checks the blobs folder to see what has changed between backups, since it's likely that a lot has remained the same.
This can actually save a lot of space, and make backups happen faster.

ffff00 said:
The blobs folder contains portions of your CWM backups.
When you make a new backup, CWM checks the blobs folder to see what has changed between backups, since it's likely that a lot has remained the same.
This can actually save a lot of space, and make backups happen faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply... I noticed they did take a lot less time to backup... so the safest way to delete a backup is through ROM manager? As I would usually just delete the backup folder (the ones inside the backup folder)... but half of my nandroid is still there?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

I haven't had to delete any yet, but I'd assume that managing them through Rom Manager would be best.
Good luck

Thanks again, will try that way next...
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

found this thread through google.
cos i was wondering why there is this blobs subfolder in cwm folder, since it's the first time i encountered it.
by the way it's the 1st time i'm using cwm touch to backup so the new prog has got to do something with since there are no blobs folder since i've been using the non touch version of cwm.
and i also noticed that it makes backups faster the non touch version.
thanks.

radeonxt said:
found this thread through google.
cos i was wondering why there is this blobs subfolder in cwm folder, since it's the first time i encountered it.
by the way it's the 1st time i'm using cwm touch to backup so the new prog has got to do something with since there are no blobs folder since i've been using the non touch version of cwm.
and i also noticed that it makes backups faster the non touch version.
thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it is touch version, I think it is the newest 6.x.x.x clockwork.mod versions... I have many touch versions installed on different devices, but this is the first time.I've seen the blob folder...
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I was hoping to use ROM Manager or ROM Toolbox Pro to backup my Nexus 7 into one file or folder, so that I could then take it off the tablet to store on my laptop in case I need it in the future. I don't want these damned blobs taking up my precious space.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?

bulldozed said:
I was hoping to use ROM Manager or ROM Toolbox Pro to backup my Nexus 7 into one file or folder, so that I could then take it off the tablet to store on my laptop in case I need it in the future. I don't want these damned blobs taking up my precious space.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure.. as it is (what I believe to be) a feature of 6.x.x.x. maybe you/someone could compile a 5.x.x.x. version and see if it just creates the backup folder and not blobs...
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

From the source: https://plus.google.com/103583939320326217147/posts/L5aVZe7C9vg
It's new functionality in CWM 6.x.

pixelens said:
From the source: https://plus.google.com/103583939320326217147/posts/L5aVZe7C9vg
It's new functionality in CWM 6.x.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, as I expected...
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I actually preferred how it was before. Now it's impossible to download the clockworkmod folder over in Windows.

https://plus.google.com/112476065271141473049/posts/CHoh72BD3aj

So basically it's impossible to store my CWM backups on my PC or the cloud now, or export via TB. And the blobs folder is already at 2gb on my 8gb Nexus 7 after only two backups. Time for TWRP.

fonseca898 said:
So basically it's impossible to store my CWM backups on my PC or the cloud now, or export via TB. And the blobs folder is already at 2gb on my 8gb Nexus 7 after only two backups. Time for TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
I have the same exact concern.
Plus this time i had to manually specify a backup to internal SD. The first time i did a nandroid i selected "Backup" and it over wrote my external SD card - I may have used an older CWM in the past that didn't behave like that - but this sure did get my blood boiling.

it may be faster on the backup process itself, but copying the blob folder to PC or deleting it, takes ages.
i don't kinda like this way of backup
so: what is the last safe version of CWM using the old style ?

It takes long due to blobs folder containing 16000+ of small files and windows is trying to index it first before moving. What I do is to zip that folder on the device and move it then ....
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I've been wondering about this too. I know it took longer for backups to complete but it was nice just being able to drop a backup folder to my computer for those "just in case" times.

yeah this sucks. I use TB for regular backups and nandroid only when making massive changes, so why would I need it to be slightly faster at the expense of gigs of wasted space?

I switched Tod TWRP because of this stupid blobs. Backup to PC takes forever. TWRP has the old method. It also supports mount of external USB devices and backup to them.

Nandroid backup problems.

I'm running version 5 (beta) of the Tweaked Stock ICS ROM on my GT-P6800, but I'm having a problem with nandroid from CWM.
I've created some valid nandroid backups in the past, but I found (to my cost!) a few weeks ago that the more recent backups I'd made weren't valid.
Reading the CWM thread over at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1542897 it sounded like there was a known problem, but should have been fixed. I flashed version 6.0.1.1 this morning, but I'm still having the same problem.
Instead of getting three .img files and three .tar files, I'm getting the three .img files but then get three small (<1MB) .dup files instead of the .tar files (data.ext4.dup, cache.ext4.dup and system.ext4.dup).
Anyone else seen this? Any ideas why?
Sorry for posting this here instead of in the developers forum - I don't seem to have posted enough on XDA to allow me to post the question in the right place!
Thanks,
Adam.

Cwm now does incremental backups as only the changes from the original backup are done. This results in faster and smaller backup sizes after the original backup. If your original backup is corrupt delete the clockworkmod folder and redo your backup. After that incremental backups will be fast and small.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium

kishd said:
Cwm now does incremental backups as only the changes from the original backup are done. This results in faster and smaller backup sizes after the original backup. If your original backup is corrupt delete the clockworkmod folder and redo your backup. After that incremental backups will be fast and small.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aaaaah! Right. Hmmmm. I kinda liked the standalone nature of the full backups.
Having been bitten by a broken backup before, I'm rather nervous of testing this out! So if I want to restore an incremental backup, do I select just the latest dated file, or do I need to restore the last full back-up (and it'll restore the original and all the changes), or do I need to restore each increment myself?
Are the backup folders completely portable, such that I can move them in and out of the 'clockworkmod' directory as requried, to force full backups each time?
Many thanks,
Adam.

Just select the last dated backup. I have restored a number of times using Iocerra's cwm 6
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium

Fantastic. Thanks, kishd.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using XDA Premium HD app

Is there any way to make a standalone backup?
And how do we know what backup folder is the main backup? Aka how do we know what one is safe to delete?
I've made several backups on different roms/kernels, and I often delete old backups to free room on sdcard..
edit: I just did a backup after changing backup format to "tar" and it was over 1GB. The previous backups were between 1 and 3 hundred MB, so I assume setting the backup mode as tar does a standalone backup. can anyone confirm?

changing backup format to "tar"
mvmacd said:
edit: I just did a backup after changing backup format to "tar" and it was over 1GB. The previous backups were between 1 and 3 hundred MB, so I assume setting the backup mode as tar does a standalone backup. can anyone confirm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you do this? I know I saw the option last night, selected it, and backed up, but then I flashed a couple upgrades and now I don't see this option anymore. I tried deleting the clockworkmod folder and backing up from fresh, but it made a dup backup. I've been burned by a string of broken dup's so I really want the tar format (plus, I can extract apps and data from a tar, but not from the blob/dup mixture). I even see a file in my new clockworkmod directory called ".default_backup_format" that contains only one word: tar. This file had to be created with the backup I just did, and yet it was still a dup style backup.
So, where did you see the option to change format to "tar"? I would really like to know.
Thanks.

kevlar11 said:
So, where did you see the option to change format to "tar"? I would really like to know.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
advanced backup options in CWM recovery (or same) ))

[Q] Recover files from CWM nandroid?

Forgive me if this is not the appropriate placement for this thread...
I've got a nandroid (PhilZ/CWM-based) from my previous S4, which was on MDL and an AOSP-based ROM. There are a number of FILES (not apps or app data) that I wish to recover. Both Titanium Backup AND Nandroid Manager have failed me. They either can't find the directory I'm looking for, or when performing a restore, the data simply isn't there. My guess is the structural difference between what I was running before, which was 4.4.2, and the 4.3 I'm on right now. That's just my guess.
Please don't respond to this with hunches or a stab in the dark, as I'm looking for real solutions here. What I need specifically, is to recover image files. For some reason, those spread amongst my Downloads directory, my Camera photos, my ZoomCamera photos, my Cymera photos, Screenshots, and those hidden within KeepSafe are ALL missing, no matter how many times I tell it to restore data-only. Again, my guess is the difference in the naming-convention or folder hierarchy.
Anyone who has experience in nit-pick type of file recovery, I greatly appreciate your wisdom. :good:

A nandroid is not going to have the picture files you're looking for. It does not backup those file locations.
Sent from my Nexus 5

jd1639 said:
A nandroid is not going to have the picture files you're looking for. It does not backup those file locations.
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Between TB and a nandroid, those files are skipped? Every time I've done full-wipes and then restores using only TB in the past, my image files were there. What am I overlooking?

disturbd1 said:
Between TB and a nandroid, those files are skipped? Every time I've done full-wipes and then restores using only TB in the past, my image files were there. What am I overlooking?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The image files are never touched so there always there. The only time they'd be wiped is if you did a factory reset in the stock recovery. Custom recoveries don't wipe the sdcard, internal or external.
Sent from my Nexus 5