[Q] Restore apps - G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Why isn't the play store restoring my apps? I've signed into gmail on the intial set up. When I open up the play store, there are no apps listed. It takes a min or 2 before only 6 or so apps show up under the install tab. When I move over to the all tab, I can see the apps that I've installed previously. I've used 4.3 ROMs on my Rezound, and all my apps download without any intervention on my part.
Anyone have any suggestions? I've installed Carbom, AICP, and Validus all with the same results with this phone.

platinumthomas said:
Why isn't the play store restoring my apps? I've signed into gmail on the intial set up. When I open up the play store, there are no apps listed. It takes a min or 2 before only 6 or so apps show up under the install tab. When I move over to the all tab, I can see the apps that I've installed previously. I've used 4.3 ROMs on my Rezound, and all my apps download without any intervention on my part.
Anyone have any suggestions? I've installed Carbom, AICP, and Validus all with the same results with this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't there a checkbox when you first boot a new ROM that asks if you want the phone to automatically backup and restore your apps? Maybe this sin't being checked somehow. In any case, and I'm guessing here, go to Settings> Backup and reset> see if the Automatic Restore button is checked. If not, then maybe checking it and rebooting would get everything re-installed.
And there is always Titanium Backup (Restore) as well.
Good luck!

Also LG's built in back up/restore is very good. Almost like titanium back up. Restores app data and is completely automated.

rfarrah said:
Isn't there a checkbox when you first boot a new ROM that asks if you want the phone to automatically backup and restore your apps? Maybe this sin't being checked somehow. In any case, and I'm guessing here, go to Settings> Backup and reset> see if the Automatic Restore button is checked. If not, then maybe checking it and rebooting would get everything re-installed.
And there is always Titanium Backup (Restore) as well.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the setting box you're talking. I've noticed before that there were two boxes to check, but on the g2 I've only seen one to back up my account.
I followed your instructions and that option wasn't enabled. But since I've already installed my apps, nothing is installing. I'll have to see if that fixed the issue, but I don't think it will since I do a clean wipe when switching ROMs.

Related

[Q] Strange backup/restore behavior. Stock G2 -> CM6 -> Stock -> CM6

I had something strange happen with the Messaging app, so I may as well list every step I took in case one of them was important.
TL;DR: I backed up "SMS Storage" from stock ROM with Ti Backup then restored it into CM6, but my old messages were still missing. Afterward I backed up and restored CM6 with nandroid and the old messages came back. fix_permissions was used in the middle for unrelated reasons.
I had stock G2 with perma-root and I wanted to try CM6. Without thinking about my apps or their data, I simply did a backup with ROM Manager, wiped and installed CM6. (All in one step. Man, I love ROM Manager!)
When I finally logged into CM6, Android started downloading all the apps I had before. It was then that I realized, "Fuuuuuuuuuck... all my settings and data are gone." I had older backups in Titanium Backup, but I wanted everything to be up to the minute. I also backed up my ADW settings and desktop configuration. Again, what a dream!
I restored my stock ROM backup and used Titanium Backup to backup everything one more time. Then I went through the download, wipe, install process again. It was already downloaded, and ROM Manager was smart enough not to download it again. Nice.
I waited yet again for Android to reinstall all my apps. A couple didn't download right, so I massaged them. I think they had updates with permission changes.
I restored my ADW settings and icons, and launched Titanium Backup. I used the restore screen and the Batch menu option. I clicked on RUN for "Restore All Apps" or whatever, which I knew would prompt me with a giant checkbox list. I unchecked everything and went down the list checking every user app. They were the ones with white text for the most part. If there was a Google system app that I was comfortable restoring, like the data for, say, Goggles, I checked that, too. I didn't check any of the truly system things.
The restore was a success and all my apps functioned beautifully.
I then opened the Messaging app and realized that all my old text messages were missing. Here's where the weirdness more-or-less starts.
I decide to go hunting in Ti Backup to see if I can find the data for the SMS app. I first restored the one with the Messaging app icon, and that managed to restore just my preferences. That made sense afterall, because it was called "[SMS/MMS PREFS] Messaging 2.2.1".
After that I tried restoring the one called "[SMS/MMS/APN] Dialer Storage 2.2.1", thinking that this must be it. No help at all.
I sent a few text messages to one person creating new data.
GPS is broken in CM6, and someone suggested running fix_permissions from the terminal. I did so, and no help with GPS. (But did this maybe fix the SMS data?)
I realized that Swype was missing and someone posted instructions on how to restore it, but you need to be back at stock and pull the files from the stock ROM. (I also could have unzipped the stock rom image, I read later, but anyway...) I restored my old stock backup, ran the ADB commands to pull the files, then restored my CM6 backup I had made just minutes earlier. I use a combination of ADB and Root Explorer to get the files in the right spot and I have Swype again.
I open the first app I can think of to test Swype, and that's Messaging. Bam! All my old messages are back! And my few new ones are now gone!
What's up with that?
elusivebyte said:
I had something strange happen with the Messaging app, so I may as well list every step I took in case one of them was important.
TL;DR: I backed up "SMS Storage" from stock ROM with Ti Backup then restored it into CM6, but my old messages were still missing. Afterward I backed up and restored CM6 with nandroid and the old messages came back. fix_permissions was used in the middle for unrelated reasons.
I had stock G2 with perma-root and I wanted to try CM6. Without thinking about my apps or their data, I simply did a backup with ROM Manager, wiped and installed CM6. (All in one step. Man, I love ROM Manager!)
When I finally logged into CM6, Android started downloading all the apps I had before. It was then that I realized, "Fuuuuuuuuuck... all my settings and data are gone." I had older backups in Titanium Backup, but I wanted everything to be up to the minute. I also backed up my ADW settings and desktop configuration. Again, what a dream!
I restored my stock ROM backup and used Titanium Backup to backup everything one more time. Then I went through the download, wipe, install process again. It was already downloaded, and ROM Manager was smart enough not to download it again. Nice.
I waited yet again for Android to reinstall all my apps. A couple didn't download right, so I massaged them. I think they had updates with permission changes.
I restored my ADW settings and icons, and launched Titanium Backup. I used the restore screen and the Batch menu option. I clicked on RUN for "Restore All Apps" or whatever, which I knew would prompt me with a giant checkbox list. I unchecked everything and went down the list checking every user app. They were the ones with white text for the most part. If there was a Google system app that I was comfortable restoring, like the data for, say, Goggles, I checked that, too. I didn't check any of the truly system things.
The restore was a success and all my apps functioned beautifully.
I then opened the Messaging app and realized that all my old text messages were missing. Here's where the weirdness more-or-less starts.
I decide to go hunting in Ti Backup to see if I can find the data for the SMS app. I first restored the one with the Messaging app icon, and that managed to restore just my preferences. That made sense afterall, because it was called "[SMS/MMS PREFS] Messaging 2.2.1".
After that I tried restoring the one called "[SMS/MMS/APN] Dialer Storage 2.2.1", thinking that this must be it. No help at all.
I sent a few text messages to one person creating new data.
GPS is broken in CM6, and someone suggested running fix_permissions from the terminal. I did so, and no help with GPS. (But did this maybe fix the SMS data?)
I realized that Swype was missing and someone posted instructions on how to restore it, but you need to be back at stock and pull the files from the stock ROM. (I also could have unzipped the stock rom image, I read later, but anyway...) I restored my old stock backup, ran the ADB commands to pull the files, then restored my CM6 backup I had made just minutes earlier. I use a combination of ADB and Root Explorer to get the files in the right spot and I have Swype again.
I open the first app I can think of to test Swype, and that's Messaging. Bam! All my old messages are back! And my few new ones are now gone!
What's up with that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a note, if android starts reinstalling all of your apps automatically again, that means that you have "back up data to google servers" checked in settings, which means that it will first reinstall your apps, then restore all of their settings and data.

[Q] what will happen to the paid app after flashing new rom

Some roms require a full wipe/factory reset before installing. Of course that will delete all apps including the one that I bought. Do I need to buy them again?
Also, will the 'titanium backup' backups the homescreen settings (i.e., the app shortcuts created on main screen)?
Your apps are attached to your gmail account, as long as you sign in on your device with the same account after flashing/wiping, you can redownload the paid apps.
Titanium backup by default will not backup homescreen settings, but if you manually backup the launcher and its data then it can restore the settings.
Sent from Sheogorath with cheese.
Yeap once you buy your apps, they're yours for good. You can sign in a whole different device and your apps in the play store still belong to you, you just open the playstore and click on the lil arrow thing up at the top for the "My Apps" page. It will open to your installed apps and if you swipe to view the page to the right it shows all apps, which includes any app you previously downloaded but isn't installed.
And also when you wipe data and install a new rom, It will have you sign into your google account in the setup process right after the wifi connection screen. Once setup is complete and you're all booted up, if you just leave the tablet alone and let it settle a few minutes, it's going to automatically install all the apps you had installed on your last rom from the play store, unless you've changed the default backup/restore settings.
Make sure with titanium backup, you NEVER install system apps, which are the red ones. You can set the filter to User apps only before backing up your apps. Then you'll load the rom and complete the setup and let it settle while it installs all the apps it's going to from the play store. Then you can just batch restore any missing apps. I would batch restore the apps only, and then go back and restore only the app data that you actually need. For instance you may want to restore a game with a thousand levels of progress, but don't restore app data just to keep from typing a username and password into an app one time which takes about four seconds.
I help a lot of new guys get started wiping, installing roms, and setting up and try to teach them along the way. I let them learn instead of doing it for them. Here's what I've found to be the best way to learn.
Make a nandroid backup of current setup. Then wipe data, cache, dalvic cache, and system, install the rom and gapps, and reboot and setup. Once it's setup let it settle in and sync and all that good stuff. You want the boxes asking if you want to back up the tablet and restore to the tablet in the setup process both checked.
After you've booted, set up, and let all the apps install that it's going to install, then reboot into recovery and make another nandroid backup, if using TWRP you can name it like "ExampleRom_B4Titanium." Now you've got a clean nandroid backup of the rom setup, and you can start playing with titanium backup and if you accidentally do something that causes problems, you can just wipe everything and restore that clean nandroid backup you made prior to Titanium.

[SOLVED] Regarding flashing and Google Play

This is more of a general question than an S5 specific one, but I am having the issue on the S5 so I figured I'd post it here.
I back up everything of mine with Titanium Backup, because when I install a new ROM, I only want a small amount of the apps associated with my Google account to be downloaded.
However, whenever I flash a new ROM and sign in, it immediately starts downloading every damn app I've ever had on a phone. I would much prefer to just go into Titanium Backup and manually restore the apps that I want to restore. Is there a way to set this up so that, right from the initial boot, I can just go download Titanium Backup and do it myself without Google Play interfering?
Rhypht said:
This is more of a general question than an S5 specific one, but I am having the issue on the S5 so I figured I'd post it here.
I back up everything of mine with Titanium Backup, because when I install a new ROM, I only want a small amount of the apps associated with my Google account to be downloaded.
However, whenever I flash a new ROM and sign in, it immediately starts downloading every damn app I've ever had on a phone. I would much prefer to just go into Titanium Backup and manually restore the apps that I want to restore. Is there a way to set this up so that, right from the initial boot, I can just go download Titanium Backup and do it myself without Google Play interfering?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always uncheck all apps and then check manualy wich apps are to be restored/installed with TB.
gee2012 said:
I always uncheck all apps to be restored and then check manualy wich apps are to be restored/installed with TB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's what I want to do as well. The problem is, as soon as I flash my phone and reboot, Google Play IMMEDIATELY takes over and starts forcing all of these apps to install on my phone. I want to disable that completely, and just go manually download Titanium Backup and do what you said. That way I only install and restore the apps that I'm actually using.
EDIT: Upon reading my initial post, I realize that I didn't make it very clear that Google Play is the problem here, not Titanium Backup. I would like to use TB, but Play just gets right to work without asking me.
Rhypht said:
Well that's what I want to do as well. The problem is, as soon as I flash my phone and reboot, Google Play IMMEDIATELY takes over and starts forcing all of these apps to install on my phone. I want to disable that completely, and just go manually download Titanium Backup and do what you said. That way I only install and restore the apps that I'm actually using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you setup the phone after the flash you can choose not to restore the apps after you entered the Gmail account/password. Then when you`re done go straight to the Play Store and stop the restoring of the (Google) apps.
After a new flash and upon Gmail sign-in, Android will ask you whether you would like to back up data. If you leave them checked your system will automatically download all the apps. Hence, uncheck both of those boxes.
gee2012 said:
When you setup the phone after the flash you can choose not to restore the apps after you entered the Gmail account/password. Then when you`re done go straight to the Play Store and stop the restoring of the (Google) apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mediumsteak said:
After a new flash and upon Gmail sign-in, Android will ask you whether you would like to back up data. If you leave them checked your system will automatically download all the apps. Hence, uncheck both of those boxes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's what I was missing. For some reason I thought that it was referring to something else. Problem solved!

[Q] Any quick way to restore apps and settings?

I like to flash different ROMs, sometimes 3 or 4 per week, sometimes 3-4 per day ... I usually come back to a "daily driver" (currently Chroma) after trying new ROMs - but I always have a Nandroid of my daily driver I can return to.
I know that downloading apps and setting them up is the nature of the beast when flashing new ROMs, but is there a quicker way to restore all your apps and settings? I have Titanium Backup (pro) installed and have backed up all my apps I have customized settings for, the rest are just left as default. I also have TWRP manager (pro), but it asks you to individually install each app and is almost quicker to just let Google choose which ones to download and restore all the apps upon setup. I've never used TIBU to restore more than my backed up app settings, does it ask you to install each app as it goes through them too?
Is Titanium the quickest way or is there another way?
Titanium allows you to do batch actions and backup and restore all the apps you want in one go. You don't need to do apps individually.
I tend to let Google do the bulk (now I have a decent internet connection) and then just overwrite the ones with app data specific to me from Titanium after in one go.
400ixl said:
I tend to let Google do the bulk (now I have a decent internet connection) and then just overwrite the ones with app data specific to me from Titanium after in one go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's kind of how I do it now and have for a while.
Thanks for the info on TIBU, I wasn't sure how that worked with a batch restore?

Anyone know of any working NON-ROOT data backup apps for S8?

Hey guys,
I'm running into a couple issues with my phone so I want to factory reset. However, I'm stuck in this tricky situation where I was able to import my data from the S7, but I cannot re-back it up under the S8.
I'd been using Helium ever since I got my S7, since it uses the built-in backup methods without requiring root. However, under Nougat it doesn't seem to work as well. You cannot restore backups that include the .apk anymore, you have to install the apps first then restore their data.
Now I'm getting a bunch of apps where I restored the data from an older version where it was still possible, updated the apps from the Play store, and now I can't back them up again! I was testing this out with the actual adb desktop backup commands... those apps just give me a blank backup file. Examples are Gboard (formerly Google Keyboard) - you always used to be able to back that up with adb, and it still shows up in the list (e.g. they didn't do allow backups=false), but it doesn't work. Helium gives an error, adb just gives me a 1KB file with nothing in it. There's clearly data there...
What gets me is that Helium uses the *official* built-in Android desktop backup protocol. It's like Google started killing that off without telling anyone, and without even having the phone return a message saying the app can't be backed up. It appears to work, but you get a blank file.
I used to be able to just use a custom recovery to make a nandroid backup, so I could easily factory reset and recover if that didn't fix the problem. But since there's no root method for the Snapdragon S8, and AFAIK the stock bootloader can't do backups like that, I'm out of options.
Does anyone use any other methods? I know Google/Android *supposedly* backup your appdata for you, but it never works - every time I try that it reinstalls the app with empty data and I have to set everything up all over again.
I would suggest using Samsung's own Cloud to back up your data. Works surprisingly well, it backs up pretty much everything, even home screen layout. It even backs up apps like OGYoutube or anything 3rd party. Looks like it backs up the entire apk and restores them with your data and logins. Worked well for me when I flashed G950U1 firmware
EDIT: Also if you go this route and factory reset your device for whatever reason, upon initial set up skip restoring apps from Google since Samsung's cloud will restore those apps back. I noticed that if you use both restore methods they will clash and your Samsung apps will be overwritten and your data will be wiped. Don't know if anyone else noticed this, just from my experience.
moises93 said:
I would suggest using Samsung's own Cloud to back up your data. Works surprisingly well, it backs up pretty much everything, even home screen layout. It even backs up apps like OGYoutube or anything 3rd party. Looks like it backs up the entire apk and restores them with your data and logins. Worked well for me when I flashed G950U1 firmware
EDIT: Also if you go this route and factory reset your device for whatever reason, upon initial set up skip restoring apps from Google since Samsung's cloud will restore those apps back. I noticed that if you use both restore methods they will clash and your Samsung apps will be overwritten and your data will be wiped. Don't know if anyone else noticed this, just from my experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, what? How do I do that? I tried the Smart Switch Windows software (not the one that lets you transfer between phones, there's a PC version too), and it only backed up the .apk, not the data.
drfsupercenter said:
Wait, what? How do I do that? I tried the Smart Switch Windows software (not the one that lets you transfer between phones, there's a PC version too), and it only backed up the .apk, not the data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just go under Settings>Cloud and Accounts>Samsung Cloud and enable backup, check it out in there. It pretty much gives you details of what it'll back up for you.
moises93 said:
EDIT: Also if you go this route and factory reset your device for whatever reason, upon initial set up skip restoring apps from Google since Samsung's cloud will restore those apps back. I noticed that if you use both restore methods they will clash and your Samsung apps will be overwritten and your data will be wiped. Don't know if anyone else noticed this, just from my experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have to turn off any settings on Google backup before resetting phone ?
moises93 said:
I would suggest using Samsung's own Cloud to back up your data. Works surprisingly well, it backs up pretty much everything, even home screen layout. It even backs up apps like OGYoutube or anything 3rd party. Looks like it backs up the entire apk and restores them with your data and logins. Worked well for me when I flashed G950U1 firmware
EDIT: Also if you go this route and factory reset your device for whatever reason, upon initial set up skip restoring apps from Google since Samsung's cloud will restore those apps back. I noticed that if you use both restore methods they will clash and your Samsung apps will be overwritten and your data will be wiped. Don't know if anyone else noticed this, just from my experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like Samsung will terminate data back up after 11 Jan 2018 - must be a capacity issue.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/7k2ihz/samsung_will_remove_app_data_backups_in_samsung/

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