Hello,
Using Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505 running Android 4.3 MJ5
I would appreciate any help with this.
Yesterday I decided to upgrade my existing 4.2.2 EE UK branded ROM to the 4.3 MJ5 unbranded ROM. The upgrade itself went without a hitch but I am having trouble with restoring SMS messages from a Kies backup.
I initially made a Kies backup and selected the box to select all items for backup. I noticed that messages were not included here for some reason so made a second backup, but this seemed to hang half-way through so I killed it after approximately 30 minutes.
I also did a manual copy of all the contents of the phone through Windows Explorer (I do not have an SD card installed).
On restoring the first backup I noticed that messages were not restored. I then restored the second backup but noted that only messages to July 2013 were restored. I restored from my Samsung account through the handset however whereas this worked it only restored messages to early October 2013 - I assume there was no sooner auto-backup.
For some reason Kies has either not backed up all the data or had a corruption somewhere (yes, I've subsequently read all about how one should stay away from it!).
Is there any way to manually retrieve the text messages from the manual copy I made of the phone's contents? I know that on Apple devices there was a file that contained all SMS messages. Is the same the case here, and if so could I possibly retrieve the remaining messages and add them to the phone?
Any help much appreciated. I'm new to Android so please excuse any mistakes.
All the best for now and take care.
Hussein.
Related
I Have a Tmobile Tab Rooted with z4root and changed the WPA_supplicant file to tether. I also have about 80 apps/games installed with save files.
I have to send my tab back to samsung for repairs and I wanted to know how to Completely back it all up.
I tried a couple apps but end up with errors or problems. Has anyone successfully backed up and restored their tmo tab?? What app did you use, and what was the process?
Thanks
A few weeks ago I updated my firmware to froyo via Kies, which worked, no data loss, so great.
Today Kies offered the latest firmware, so I agreed. Selected the back up options and continued. A window popped up to say backup failed, but the firmware upgrade continued with no option to stop it. This also failed and left my phone unusable. Kies firmware recovery didn't work either. I got my phone back working with Oden3 and I9000XWJV1 firmware. So now I'm running v2.3.2. Unfortunately because the backup failed I lost all my account details, contacts and apps.
The main reason for upgrading was I wanted to use a SIP account and my friends Nexus running Gingerbread had this option, but my i9000 still does not.
To get the SIP account option, will I need to root the phone and install a custom firmware? Or are there any apps which will let me use my SIP account on the i9000.
ecotack said:
A few weeks ago I updated my firmware to froyo via Kies, which worked, no data loss, so great.
Today Kies offered the latest firmware, so I agreed. Selected the back up options and continued. A window popped up to say backup failed, but the firmware upgrade continued with no option to stop it. This also failed and left my phone unusable. Kies firmware recovery didn't work either. I got my phone back working with Oden3 and I9000XWJV1 firmware. So now I'm running v2.3.2. Unfortunately because the backup failed I lost all my account details, contacts and apps.
The main reason for upgrading was I wanted to use a SIP account and my friends Nexus running Gingerbread had this option, but my i9000 still does not.
To get the SIP account option, will I need to root the phone and install a custom firmware? Or are there any apps which will let me use my SIP account on the i9000.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not surprised that after 7 hours no one has bothered to reply
1) Kies offers a firmware upgrade recovery option from the pull-down menu - its happened to me...it works
2) Why did you install JV1 via Odin? - its a GB beta release and is notoriously flakey...I can't imagine a worse option. You need to use any of the stable 2.3.3 firmwares, the latest being JVO and available from Samfirmware.com
3) Your account details are pretty easy to enter aren't they? Losing your contacts is dumb....the whole point of this technology is that you sync to your gmail account so you never need to worry about trashing your phone or losing it...just log on to another and away you go.
Sorry to sound harsh mate but your post is just a lesson to anyone else who doesn't follow some common sense rules.
Fortunately you haven't bricked your phone....recommend you do (2) above, then do some reading on here about backing up, how to use your google account properly, not saving contacts on your phone .....and generally getting the most out of your £350 piece of kit
Thanks for the reply. I installed that firmware from a quick Google (I was at work when Kies messed up my phone and very busy). I just popped over to SamFirmware and downloaded the latest firmware (XXJVO), which Odin3 installed without loosing my apps, etc (just a few settings as you would expect). All appears well, for now.
Spent some time Googling last night and I found CSipSimple, which works nicely with my SIP account.
Still Not sure why my contacts where not saved to the google account, it had 5 of them. Also loosing all my apps meant I could take a look at alternatives, which proved fruitful. Contacts now saved to my SD, but can't find a way of backing up my apps unless I root the phone...I think I'll give that a miss.
Hi guys,
Can someone tell me the best way to make an exact copy of a brand new phone so that I can always go back to the 'as new' config.
This would be a new phone straight from the box.
Thanks
frostyboy998
frostyboy998 said:
Hi guys,
Can someone tell me the best way to make an exact copy of a brand new phone so that I can always go back to the 'as new' config.
This would be a new phone straight from the box.
Thanks
frostyboy998
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Data factory reset?
Well the best way is to get a copy of the image that the factory uses.. Well, perhaps that is impractical.
The most faithful copy that we could probably do from home would be using dd from the command line to make a sector by sector image. But you need super user (root) to do that. Possibly you could do it from an ADB session without root (untested). Using the linux dd utility or an ADB session are cumbersome and rather technical for many end users though..
In practical terms, either as gee2012 suggested above. I'm not certain that would get you to an exactly out of the box experience.. but it would be close.. easy to do and repeatable. So a decent solution. And should the file system get really messed up, you could presumably reflash a full OEM image to get back to that point as well.
Or another approach that I would favour myself would be to do a full Nandroid instead to resolve small discrepancies that probably exist between out of the box and the state a factory reset would put the device in. The downside being that a full Nandroid is easiest to do with a custom recovery.. and that will trip the Knox counter which will have warranty implications for some. Whether it affects your warranty depends on country you reside in, how well national legislation there protects consumer rights, whether your carrier cares about Knox and whether you care about the warranty much to begin with.
I would take the out of box phone, flash a custom recovery, and then do a full Nandroid backup. Your nandroid then will be an exact representation of your out of the box configuration, save for the recovery per se. To restore precisely would be one or two steps. Restoring the Nandroid would revert everything except recovery to the out of the box condition. And should that point matter, then one could do the second step of restoring the stock recovery as well..
.
Download from Sammobile the ROM, so you can flash via ODIN.
Thanks for your comments.
Here is my reasoning.....
I currently use a Galaxy S3, pending getting the S5 very soon.
When I first got my S3 it seemed perfect. Everything worked well.
I have since done a number of Kies updates and also a couple of Sammobile updates via Odin.
Every time I updated, there seemed to be some things that didn't work as well.
So I decided to try and revert to the original firmware that came with my mobile, via Sammobile and Odin.
I have done this, but now, whenever I leave a wifi zone, my mobile internet seems to connect when it feels like it. Sometimes not at all.
I have to switch mobile internet off, restart the phone and then switch mobile internet back on, to get it to start up.
When I get my new S5, I would like to have an exact copy of the phone, so that I can always revert to my very own original setup if I choose to.
Apparently after updating beyond Android 4.3, there came a change in the format of the EFS folder, which prevented stepping back.
I don't want to be forced into that position again, so want a perfect copy!
From my reading, it appears I would have to root the phone, install Titanium backup, do a full nandroid backup, then unroot the phone and reset the counters to be back in warranty.
Am I right or would that not work?
frostyboy
edit: After updating firmware on a phone, does a factory reset change back to a previous firmware? I would think not. I think it would just reset all the added consumer stuff. (contacts, apps, emails and sms etc)
frostyboy998 said:
Thanks for your comments.
Here is my reasoning.....
I currently use a Galaxy S3, pending getting the S5 very soon.
When I first got my S3 it seemed perfect. Everything worked well.
I have since done a number of Kies updates and also a couple of Sammobile updates via Odin.
Every time I updated, there seemed to be some things that didn't work as well.
So I decided to try and revert to the original firmware that came with my mobile, via Sammobile and Odin.
I have done this, but now, whenever I leave a wifi zone, my mobile internet seems to connect when it feels like it. Sometimes not at all.
I have to switch mobile internet off, restart the phone and then switch mobile internet back on, to get it to start up.
When I get my new S5, I would like to have an exact copy of the phone, so that I can always revert to my very own original setup if I choose to.
Apparently after updating beyond Android 4.3, there came a change in the format of the EFS folder, which prevented stepping back.
I don't want to be forced into that position again, so want a perfect copy!
From my reading, it appears I would have to root the phone, install Titanium backup, do a full nandroid backup, then unroot the phone and reset the counters to be back in warranty.
Am I right or would that not work?
frostyboy
edit: After updating firmware on a phone, does a factory reset change back to a previous firmware? I would think not. I think it would just reset all the added consumer stuff. (contacts, apps, emails and sms etc)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting with Towelroot doesn`t trip KNOX but flashing a custom recovery to make a nandroid backup will and is irreversible. Best is to backup the EFS folder after you are rooted with an app here http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/development/efs-samsung-tool-universal-support-t2602325 or with adb as documented here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2737448.
BTW Triangle Away doesn`t work on the S5 atm so resetting the status to official after you flashed custom software with Odin isn not possible
For the past week I've been trying to install the NE9 update. When trying it reboots the phone and starts installing. Half way through installation the android falls on its back and fails. Then when it boots back up again it tells me that the update wasn't applied due to failure.
Prior to the update before trying I've been rooted with towelroot if thats worth mentioning.
I also tired Verizon Software Upgrade Assistant on the PC and the software tells me its up to date, not acknowledging that there is a newer firmware available.
Is there another way to "update" without flashing. I'm not really up to reinstalling and reconfiguring everything. Although I have Titanium Backup Pro.
Also if no solutions how do I get rid of this screen which pops up everyday?
You already know the answer and are trying to avoid it. Odin is the most reliable way to apply an update. OTA updates fail for numerous reasons and we couldn't begin to guess why in your case because you provided almost zero information about your phone e.g.what was the exact, verbatim error or failure message you received, have you frozen any apps, syslog, current firmware version or anything else.
We don't have your phone in front of us, so when you don't describe those crucial details, the best we could possibly do is make stabs in the dark as to what is going on.
If you do a proper backup, restoring your programs afterward shouldn't be that hard. You could probably just restore your backed up /data partition over the updated system and have most of your apps and settings restored in one swoop. Alternately, you might be able to apply the new firmware image with mobile odin pro, while leaving your existing /data partition intact.
Or disable the OTA update manager to avoid the update. Verizon likes to rename or at least append vzw to system apps, so search the Verizon forum for the name of the Verizon OTA update manager app.
.
fffft said:
You already know the answer and are trying to avoid it. Odin is the most reliable way to apply an update. OTA updates fail for numerous reasons and we couldn't begin to guess why in your case because you provided almost zero information about your phone e.g.what was the exact, verbatim error or failure message you received, have you frozen any apps, syslog, current firmware version or anything else.
We don't have your phone in front of us, so when you don't describe those crucial details, the best we could possibly do is make stabs in the dark as to what is going on.
If you do a proper backup, restoring your programs afterward shouldn't be that hard. You could probably just restore your backed up /data partition over the updated system and have most of your apps and settings restored in one swoop. Alternately, you might be able to apply the new firmware image with mobile odin pro, while leaving your existing /data partition intact.
Or disable the OTA update manager to avoid the update. Verizon likes to rename or at least append vzw to system apps, so search the Verizon forum for the name of the Verizon OTA update manager app.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got through it. Thanks for replying. The Verizon Software Upgrade Assistant started working. I was getting ready to go into odin after I plugged in my USB cable then I noticed to the bottom right something said downloading update. The software did everything. After I swapped kernels rooted and swapped the kernal back with odin. Sorry my mind is a bit foggy I've recently came back to Android. Last time I was around was way back with the Motorola Cliq and the HTC Sensation. I really wasn't up for flashing because I had the phone for about 2 weeks and if I hit a snag then it will require a bunch of research /rant.
All is well solved.
Hello,
I have a Galaxy S4 (SGH-I337, AT&T) running Android 5.0.1 that I successfully rooted yesterday. I ran Root Checker to confirm. The phone worked fine. I then started deleting bloatware to free space. I rebooted 2-3 times during the day as I was deleting programs. Finally I deleting the wrong program/file.
Now the phone starts and goes to the page where I would normally need to enter my data encryption password, but, no keyboard exists. The phone seems fine, I could make an emergency phone call as it stands, but the lack of a keyboard to enter the password is a game stopper.
I am computer literate but not so on my phone. Am I stuck? Is there a solution?
Thank you in advance.
Mark
P.S. I have a backup using Titanium Backup. If I could get past the password screen, I could theoretically restore the deleted program/file.