I just noticed that the current clockworkmod for the Nexus 4 generates backups that only include images for boot and recovery.
Is there any way to get a full backup of everything on the device, which can be restored to return the phone to exactly the same state it was in? Having all files in formats that can be restored via fastboot would be ideal (just reflash boot/recovery/system/userdata).
Typically the solution is to dump all of this to the sd card, but since this phone doesn't have an sd card it would probably make sense to just send it over adb to be written to a PC (which is how I believe nandroid used to work when I first started using it on my G1).
If nothing exists I guess I can probably just whip up a script that runs over adb from an insecure recovery.
Why not just use titanium/etc? Well, I do, and that would be my solution for restoring individual apps/etc. However, if I want to mess with an experimental ROM for a few hours I'd rather just do a full image of the whole device and then restore it when I'm done. If I have image files I can restore via fastboot then I know that the phone is restored to the exact state it was in when I started.
I just use TWRP once a month or anytime I make critical changes to my system. (aka NANDROID backup) And also Titanium Backup Pro for individuality of app storage.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
Hate to self-reply, but the other reason I don't like Titanium is that it isn't atomic. Time passes between the first and last backup, so the phone might not be restored to a consistent state. It is better than nothing, and it is as good as you can do for an online backup without converting the phone to something like btrfs, but I'd really prefer an atomic backup, which is best done offline unless the OS is designed for it.
chinchillables said:
I just use TWRP once a month or anytime I make critical changes to my system. (aka NANDROID backup) And also Titanium Backup Pro for individuality of app storage.
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Believe it or not I hadn't heard of TWRP. That seems to work better - I'll see if I prefer it to clockworkmod - if nothing else I'll just boot it from fastboot for backups.
I also use Ti Backup Pro for individual apps. I think that there is a place for both.
Related
Hey all,
When I had my Windows mobile phone, I could use Sprite Backup to make a backup that basically acted as an image that I could store on the SD Card. I could then do anything possible to my phone, and then I could simply restore the image, and it went back to the EXACT state it was when i took the image - registry, ALL apps, messages, icons, etc..., just like a 100% hard drive image.
I have Sprite backup on my Samsung Epic now, and was wondering if it acted the same way?
That is, if I install a custom rom, I would like to be able to factory restore it, then apply the backup to take it back to the exact state it was.
Is this how it works?
Thanks,
Matt!
It's called a nand backup and one of the benefits of rooting
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Great,
I'm rooted, so I'll. Check it out....
Thanks!
Get the one click root and recovery. Once you have clockwork mod you can do a full backup. Also you can do an "advanced restore" and just restore your /data.
I have found that sometimes a restore doesn't work correctly and I have to reflash the rom and just restore /data to put my apps and settings back.
A word of warning, sometimes when you flash an old /data to a new rom it causes issues with programs. Personally, I have had very few issues doing it, even when moving between 2.1 and 2.2.1, but ymmv.
So, I just rooted my Mytouch 4G a few days ago using the 'Ultimate' guide on this forum. I had root access and I disabled and deleted some stock apps from my phone. I was using LauncherPro instead of the HTC Sense launcher. I made a backup in Clockworkmod recovery immediately after installing Clockworkmod, before I'd made any major changes.
So, I spent the past few days removing and tweaking things. I had my phone working extremely well. But then I realized that I actually wanted an .apk file (the stock visual voicemail app) that I'd already deleted from the phone. It should be in my original backup file, right? So I figured that I'd make a new backup, restore my old backup containing the .apk file, copy the .apk file off of the phone, then restore my recent backup. Well...this didn't work.
When I restored either the original backup or the more recent backup, the phone would boot up and I'd get a message that the System UIDs are inconsistent. The phone would let me make phone calls, but 95% of my apps were missing from the loader. Most of the icons on my home screens were grayed out and would tell me the applications were missing when I tried to click on them.
I tried Fix Permissions in Clockworkmod recovery, but it didn't help. My Android Market app and all of my file manager apps didn't work, so I couldn't reinstall any apps. When I'd wipe all the data on my phone, but only restore the System backup, the Android Market would work and the phone basically returns to stock. But as soon as I restore my Data backup, everything breaks.
At this point, I've already wiped the phone and started over from scratch, but I'm afraid to rely on Clockworkmod/Rom Manager for backups again. Any ideas what went wrong?
did you flash a different kernel? this may be the issue, as I know that for other devices CWM does not restore the kernel.
this happens when your backups/card gets corrupted... it could of been a number of things... changing the name of something to how much you scan the card... hard to say exactly what caused it... If your really worried about it I would suggest making a backup of your backup on your computer just to be safe...
Hmm. Mine does.
mr.tenuki said:
did you flash a different kernel? this may be the issue, as I know that for other devices CWM does not restore the kernel.
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Sent from my stickie key HTC Glacier using XDA App
I did make a backup of my backup, but it's not like these backups sat on the memory card for months before they got used. I ran the restore within minutes of when I made the last backup. Besides, aren't the backups hashed with md5 and then retested before restoring? So, if the files did get corrupted, I would think Clockworkmod would have notified me, no?
I just wish that after making a backup, there was some way to test it out without taking the chance of trashing my phone.
Regarding using a different kernel, I did not. I did not flash any experimental/downloaded images, these were simple backups and restores of my existing phone data.
mr.tenuki said:
did you flash a different kernel? this may be the issue, as I know that for other devices CWM does not restore the kernel.
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This is for phones that dont support Nand like the vibrant. HTC phones is a full backup including kernel.
sundayhustler said:
I did make a backup of my backup, but it's not like these backups sat on the memory card for months before they got used. I ran the restore within minutes of when I made the last backup. Besides, aren't the backups hashed with md5 and then retested before restoring? So, if the files did get corrupted, I would think Clockworkmod would have notified me, no?
I just wish that after making a backup, there was some way to test it out without taking the chance of trashing my phone.
Regarding using a different kernel, I did not. I did not flash any experimental/downloaded images, these were simple backups and restores of my existing phone data.
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Your right, CWM does do a md5 check when restoring. I'm sorry, I don't know what could be wrong. I currently have like 5 backups of 4 ROMS and have to restored to just to play around. Did you do apps2sd? This can cause major issues when switching ROM's.
I am also having a problem restoring to my stock rom. how big does my backup file have to be?
I have had this problem before. I think in my case my issue was caused by and incompatible version of CWM. I found that to be safe, I usually make two back ups, one with recovery in 2.5.12 and one with 3.0.0.6.
It was the file. It was only 60mb, apparently I ran out of memory thanks though my other backups work fine and I found the stock rom on a thread.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
oh haha i was about to post.
I was reading FadedLite's Guide to root the Nexus 7, and one of the commentors posted that you should create a nandroid backup and bootable image after installing CWM but before adding SU. I'm not entirely sure what the purposes of these backups would be, but anyone can download the factory image from google here. So is a nandroid backup really necessary?
This is my first post on xda (although I've been here since March and have rooted 2 devices already) so I'm really hoping I posted this correctly.
I would say, and a lot of XDA users will tell ALWAYS make a backup. Although there might be factory image at Google backing up your own system is a very good idea.
Well, it's not necessary but it's always that just in case notion. I mean what about that slim chance that your USB port was not working and it suddenly stopped working properly?
I make nandroid backups only when I'm testing new ROMs and PLAN to go back to my original. I made a nandroid backup of my Galaxy S III stock ROM and then tried out jelly bean, once I was sick of it I switched back to the stock ROM because it worked obviously
I was just thinking that a backup stored locally would take up a lot of the tablet's very limited space. As long as you can boot into recovery, couldn't I just store it on another device and move the file over while in recovery? While there is a chance of usb malfunction, it is a slim chance... then again I have already perma-bricked one of my devices already, but that was an issue trying to install cwm so I couldn't have made a backup anyways.
Well, if your USB port goes, wifi or Bluetooth transfer would allow you to transfer your backup over. Unless you also don't have a bootable rom at the same time.
Nandroids are huge but it might be a good idea to have a working flashable build on internal memory at all times so you can boot up and transfer stuff.
Koush is developing a new CWR that creates TINY backups, I have no clue how he does it but he does.
unless you are running pure stock from google or a full final rom like cyanogen final, you should always have a backup.
You can download the image, but you lose ALL of your data. A nandroid backup keeps your apps and data.
A nandroid backup of ICS/JB is around 1.5-2GB in size. and yes that is a huge file size. And yes you can remove it from the device and put it back on. i STRONGLY recommend copying the entire directory and then erasing the individual files from your device so you don't forget where they're suppose to go.
If you are planning on doing custom roms or any root activity a nandroid is basically required.
Going to update to a new release? nandroid.
going to install a new theme, boot animation, metamorph? nandroid.
Are the chances small that something will go wrong? yes. But if it does, do you really want to have to redo EVERYTHING on your device?
I do a backup once a week on my galaxy nexus through clockwork mod that way i don't ever have to worry about something going wrong. restore the backup and at the most i'm back to where i was 7 days before.
Also, with USB-OTG you can connect the nexus 7 to a portable hard drive and store your backups there.
Not all flashable zips wipe the device. I actually find it very annoying when devs add wiping to their zips. I flash without wiping a lot and rarely have problems.
Hi
As you've prob guessed I'm a noob, hence the help.
Ive just recently rooted and unlocked my nexus 7 with wugfresh 1.6.2 and am now looking at putting a custom rom on it.
Ive followed the advice and put titanium backup on and backed up my apps and system data.
Having read the instructions for installing Smooth Rom 4.4, it states 'Please do not restore a 'system' data backup as it would overwritte some important files'
does this mean I cannot restore my apps from titanium backup as I cant restore system data as they where backed up together or is there some other way for me to do it ?
does titanium backup get wiped as well ?
All Help appreciated, this is my first rom install and I dont wanna **** it up.
Robbie_UK said:
All Help appreciated, this is my first rom install and I dont wanna **** it up.
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The most important thing to do is to make a FULL nandroid backup before you begin.
The 2nd most important thing to do is to get that backup copied someplace else besides the tablet. (PC, USB key, etc) Screw-ups involving accidental erasure of the psuedo- SD card area on the tablet are commonplace with folks that are new to this. It won't do you any good to make a backup if you immediately erase it while fooling around with a custom recovery (or toolkit) that is new to you.
I suggest you learn to make backups using the custom recovery rather than relying on a toolkit.
If you are happy with the tablet in it's current configuration, then a back-up allows you to survive any ****-ups that inevitably follow as you can return back to a known state and proceed again having learned from your mistakes.
FULL NANDROID BACKUPS. COPIED SOMEPLACE SAFE (OFF THE TABLET)
As for TiB, the only thing that is 100% safe is to only restore apps & their data that are NOT pre-installed in whatever ROM you are installing. Note this means not restoring any of the Google gapps as well, as you may have had a different versions of those apps running on your current ROM than on the to-be-installed ROM, whether pre-installed or updated later.
Yeah it's a bit of work restoring apps one by one and re-configuring things. There probably are System apps that can have their data safely restored to the wrong version of the app - but there are absolutely no guarantees that correct operation of the app will follow that.
cheers and good luck
SOLVED!
cheeseypi said:
I have been scouring the internet for over 2 hours, and I can't seem to find anyone who has done something similar to this, so here goes:
I currently have a Nexus 6P with the Pure Nexus Project Rom installed. I would like to switch to CyanogenMod. Normally, this would be no problem, however I am running into some difficulties with backups. Ideally, I would just do a NANDroid backup from TWRP, but I don't have enough space on my device. Right now I am running a full ADB backup to my computer, but in this instance I don't know if I'll be able to restore that backup to a new CyanogenMod installation.
TL;DR: Will an ADB backup restore to a new custom rom i.e. restore to CM from PureNexus? If not, is there a way to do a NANDroid backup directly to my computer?
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You shouldn't be using TWRP to backup/restore data between different ROMs in the first place. That will not only back up your apps but all settings as well, which will cause problems on a different ROM. The only safe way is to use Titanium Backup to backup your user apps (not system apps) and then restore that backup on the new ROM.
Heisenberg said:
You shouldn't be using TWRP to backup/restore data between different ROMs in the first place. That will not only back up your apps but all settings as well, which will cause problems on a different ROM. The only safe way is to use Titanium Backup to backup your user apps (not system apps) and then restore that backup on the new ROM.
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Well that goes against everything I've seen... Thanks though.
cheeseypi said:
Well that goes against everything I've seen... Thanks though.
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Could you point me to where you've seen someone recommending to restore a nandroid /data backup on a different ROM? It's widely known that this is nothing but trouble, if it's on XDA it probably needs to be taken care of.
cheeseypi said:
I have been scouring the internet for over 2 hours, and I can't seem to find anyone who has done something similar to this, so here goes:
I currently have a Nexus 6P with the Pure Nexus Project Rom installed. I would like to switch to CyanogenMod. Normally, this would be no problem, however I am running into some difficulties with backups. Ideally, I would just do a NANDroid backup from TWRP, but I don't have enough space on my device. Right now I am running a full ADB backup to my computer, but in this instance I don't know if I'll be able to restore that backup to a new CyanogenMod installation.
TL;DR: Will an ADB backup restore to a new custom rom i.e. restore to CM from PureNexus? If not, is there a way to do a NANDroid backup directly to my computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium backup is the only really viable solution in such a case. When you need to make a snapshot of your whole system in case of failure you use a Nandroid backup, however when you need to transfer data between /system formats then it's best if you use titanium backup.