Hi,
I know cwm is NOT supposed to backup the sdcard but just /system, /data and a few other small partitions.
On my nexus 7 I have hardly any data, apps plus data are under 1G but a single cwm backup (I have just one backup) takes 2.8GB.
Its as though its backing up the sdcard as well as the size of the backup seems to be about right for an entire backup including the sdcard.
I wonder if the fact /data and /sdcard are actually accessing the same real storage (/sdcard sits on internal storage) is confusing cwm.
Has anyone else noticed this.
If its not the case then why is the backup so large.
BTW I know im not doing anything stupid like miscalculating the amount of data and apps etc.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
I think the problem was I still had old backup blobs from deleted cwm backups. Looks like just deleting the backup via cwm doesn't delete the blobs, I had to chose the option to free nandroid space.
However I've switched to twrp now anyway as I don't like the way cwm uses these blobs. I find it much better to have each backup completely separate and then I can copy an individual backup off the system and store elsewhere.
I also find thousands of blobs/files slows things down when using apps to manage the internal sdcard filesystem
Related
I have backed up my N7 two different ways, and am a little confused as to the differences in size, and *what* exactly is backed up. The first method I tried, because my N7 is encrypted, was the ADB backup method. Using the following:
adb backup -f C:\XXXXXX.ab -apk -shared -all -system (which is every option), get's me a backup of about 2.2 Gigs. I have 1.5 Gigs of Co-pilot maps, and about 600 Megs of video, in addition to apps and the system.
When I do a TWRP backup (now that it supports encryption), using *all* the options (3 are checked by default, and I add the rest like Cache, Boot, etc...) I get a backup of about 1 Gig.
Coming from the Windows world and having one image that includes the entire computer system, I want the same thing for the N7: Disaster occurs and I just recover 1 image and have everything back the way it was. Why the size difference between the two? Which one is more complete? Best for a disaster/replacement after loss/theft?
Thanks!
RF
Twrp and cwm compress their backups. Which is more secure? Well if they're both on the disk and it's encrypted I would think both, I'm not sure if encrypted backups are supported.
Sent from my paranoid Nexus 7.
redmonke255 said:
Twrp and cwm compress their backups. Which is more secure? Well if they're both on the disk and it's encrypted I would think both, I'm not sure if encrypted backups are supported.
Sent from my paranoid Nexus 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In case its helpful, the new TWRP version has some new features for doing encrypted backups.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Thanks for the replies. I'm not worried about the security (the ADB backup is encrypted by default. and the TWRP backup is stored in a TrueCrypt container). I was more concerned with the size difference. It looks like the TWRP backup might not include the GPS maps or my videos? I'm just looking for confirmation that I can restore *everything* in case of disaster, and which one would do that. It looks like ADB may be more complete...but I don't know.
RF
Hello everybody. I've been flashing custom roms for a while now and I've never had this problem. I would like to make a twrp backup of my current rom and try another one, I've done this in the past but now I'm having some trouble doing it, and I'm not sure what's wrong. On my phone I have 5.5gb free, my apps total are 2.6gb and my other media in the SD card partition are about 4gb.. Now when I try to make a backup in twrp it comes out like 6gb which really to big to keep on the phone. I always remembered that all the backups I did where around 2.8gb so I don't understand what's wrong. I would like to backup my rom with apps and settings and exclude my SD card partition since even if a rom doesn't boot and I do a clean wipe doesn't get erased... Any ideas? I'm on the latest twrp...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Perhaps you should delete your old backups and choose to compress backup
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
TWRP doesn't support excluding things afaik, you could always make a backup of just /system with TWRP and use 'adb backup' to do your apps.
I usually use 'adb backup -all -apk -nosystem' as this works without root and will backup all user apps + data.
Using GS4 I9505, and my internal storage is getting shorter shorter, day by day. almost like its vanished. i've check emulated 0 and legacy drives nothing there. but as i gethered it coz of CWM, now using twrp, uninstalled CWM but still storage isn't available for usage.
Your space is still lost because it's still allocated to CWM for nandroid backups, even though you no longer have CWM on the device. Therefore, you need to put CWM back on the device, go into its backups and storage menu, delete any existing backups it made, then free the allocated space.
When you put TWRP back on to the S4, your space should return.
He can delete the CMW folder from the storage. The backups are there and they are not hidden.
I provided an in-depth explanation of this in an earlier thread on the same topic, but in essence CWM protects the nandroid backups space so nothing else can write to that area. This is because CWM performs incremental backups by default, and deleting older restore points messes up all of them. The protection persists even after CWM is removed, so when switching recoveries, all backups need to be deleted in CWM, and all allocated space freed using the "free allocated space" option in the backup and restore menu.
EDIT: To point out the obvious, there would be no need for a "free allocated space" option in CWM if the space weren't protected.
Well, that's stupid. With TWRP I can simply go inside the folder and delete the backups (without the need of booting into recovery and deleting them from there).
Calling it stupid is a bit harsh, and besides, Koush probably will disagree with you.
By default CWM is set to do incremental backups and does this as a space-saving feature. For example purposes let's say a nandroid backup is 2GB. Using the standard .TAR method four nandroid backups would take up 8GB. Switch to .DUP and those same four backups may only take 3GB. This is because .DUP only backs up the files that have changed between the current system and the previous backups, rather than backing up the entire partition. Since CWM in .DUP doesn't back up the entire partition when making its backups, it's vitally important that the backups be protected. Otherwise, deleting an older backup makes it impossible to restore any later backups.
The example I used in my other discussion to illustrate this was four backups, labeled A through D. A is the master backup and B through D are the incremental backups. If the space wasn't protected, deleting backup C in a file manager would render backup D invalid because of missing files. Naturally, deleting backup A would render all subsequent backups invalid, as it is the master backup.
In CWM it is possible to switch from .DUP to .TAR and thus stop CWM from allocating space for backups. The OP didn't do that, which is why his space disappeared even after switching to TWRP. There may be a manual method of removing the allocation through a terminal, but it's simply easier to restore CWM, delete the backups, free the space, then switch back to TWRP.
hi folks,
i have an i9505 running stock rooted 4.4.2. i noticed that under device storage it is telling me that of the 9.95gb available internal memory, only about half is free. it says "applications" is using about 3gb. however all the files on the internal storage only add up to about 800mb. i have used es file explorer's sd card analyzer to look at all the files on the internal storage, and it confirms only 800mb or so is there. where is the 4gb or so other data?
w.
You're rooted. Do you have a custom recovery installed?
yes i have CWM installed. i just used it to wipe the cache partition and davlik cache. didn't make any difference.
You made nandroid backups however, right? Two things you need to know.
1. CWM by default protects the internal storage where nandroid backups are stored. You need to delete the backups and delete protected storage to get the space back.
2. CWM is no longer supported. Switch to TWRP as certain ROMs will not install with CWM. In addition, TWRP does not protect the storage like CWM, and it allows nandroid backups to be stored on the MicroSD.
yes i have several CWM full backups but they are on the ext SD card. no backups on the internal memory. what is the protected storage you're referring to? CWM is supported for a stock kit kat 4.4.2 rom isn't it?
In CWM the location where the nandroid backups are made is on the internal storage, and is protected from being modified by the user outside of the recovery. This is because of how CWM makes backups. The default backup format is to take incremental backups. The space is allocated so that the end user cannot randomly delete backups outside of the recovery, because in an incremental backup only the changes between the last backup and the current ROM state are backed up. Deleting a backup between the earliest and latest backups screws up all backups following the deleted date. It is possible to change the way CWM does backups, but most end users don't dig deeply enough into the recovery to find these things out.
CWM's protected storage space is on the internal storage, and it is the biggest reason your internal storage isn't reading the correct amount. You need to head into the backup menu and free all unused storage to get that storage back. Once you do that, you really want to install TWRP, because it avoids this problem altogether.
I got a low storage message on my S4. I deleted caches, I deleted the cache partition, I deleted several apps, I deleted all the media files I could, I moved whatever parts of apps I could to the external SD card. I regained enough space to make the message disappear. But lo and behold after some plain old web browing, I lost 250mb overnight, and since this afternoon, another 120mb. Why did the recovered space disappear? How do I get it back? I am so frustrated. The only two things I can think of are to do a factory reset and hope for the best or dump the S4 for something with more system and base storage.
Did you use Clockworkmod or Philz recovery at any point?
How many apps do you have on your device?
How many large games are on your device?
Here's why I asked about Clockworkmod. The last version would allocate space for nandroid backups and would not free it unless you told it to. It would do this because the nandroid backups were in fact incremental backups, and being able to delete one backup would screw up all subsequent backups made. TWRP thankfully doesn't do this, but nandroid backups are located on internal storage. Too many backups and your space goes *poof*.
Large apps and games will consume space as their data is stored in the internal storage, though I'm sure you know that. Thing is, a lot of small apps can have the same effect.
If you ran Clockworkmod at any point and didn't free up the space it reserved for nandroid backups, you'll have to reinstall it and free the space. Otherwise, check for excess numbers of nandroid backups. If there are too many backups and you're running Clockworkmod, delete them all, free up the space using Clockworkmod's commands for that, and switch to TWRP. If there are too many backups and you're running TWRP, delete all but the newest one. As for your apps, you really should go through them and uninstall the ones you haven't accessed in a while.
Browsers such as Chrome (and anything based on it I guess) tend to have large cache.
My Chromium based browser has a 240MB cache.
I have not rooted this phone. I have very few games, nothing large. I do not use Chrome, only Dolphin. I have moved as many apps (or part of them) as possible to the external SD card. Yet, space keeps disappearing.