Database Users

[Q] What is this huge inaccessible "system data" chunk on my internal storage?

[Q] What is this huge inaccessible "system data" chunk on my internal storage?
Note: I am NOT referring to the /system directory. I'm referring to a section of memory on my internal storage literally labeled "System data". See the first attached screenshot.
I noticed earlier today that I have way less space remaining than I should. I used DiskUsage to look at my internal memory, and a ~3GB chunk of it is taken up by something labeled "System data". It doesn't let me view this data and I can't figure out where/what it is. It's always listed as "other" when I view the used space in Solid Explorer or Airdroid. What is this space, and how can I reclaim it? My storage numbers also don't add up.
Stock rooted 4.2.1, 16GB.
Edit: I think it might be due (for the most part, at least) to CWM backups. As stated in ROM Manager: "In Android 4.2, backups are placed in secure directory, inaccessible to other apps." This was also speculated in a few other threads I found.
Edit 2: I deleted one of my 2 backups and the space used by "system data" was cut nearly in half, so I'm pretty sure it is the backups. However, the space used is not exactly the same as the size of the remaining backup, so maybe there are a couple other smaller things contributing to it as well.

thevoiceless said:
I noticed earlier today that I have way less space remaining than I should. I used DiskUsage to look at my internal memory, and a ~3GB chunk of it is taken up by something labeled "System data". It doesn't let me view this data and I can't figure out where/what it is. It's always listed as "other" when I view the used space in Solid Explorer or Airdroid. What is this space, and how can I reclaim it?
Stock rooted 4.2.1, 16GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the name of it is usually a hint... its the "System data" of your Android System.
You get it back when you delete it...
Unfortunately the phone wont boot anymore because it wont have a system on it...
No idea why you have 3 GBs, CM10.1 only has 0.5GB, I guess you use stock.

Testraindrop said:
Well the name of it is usually a hint... its the "System data" of your Android System.
You get it back when you delete it...
Unfortunately the phone wont boot anymore because it wont have a system on it...
No idea why you have 3 GBs, CM10.1 only has 0.5GB, I guess you use stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that system data was stored on the other ~3GB that I don't have access to (16GB - 12.96GB out of the box).
Are you saying that I'm now losing more space to stuff I have no control over? And if so, is there a way to figure out what is using so much space?
And yes, I said in my post that I'm running stock rooted 4.2.1
Edit:
Assuming that Ivan Volosyuk's (the developer of DiskUsage) post in 2010 is still correct...
System data consists of several things:
1. Unpacked dalvik bytecodes corresponding to your installed apks. If you install app on external storage, it still consumes space on your data partition.
2. Crash dumps stored in tombstones directory.
3. Any other data or settings android store on your device.
This data is hidden and DiskUsage can't easily identify how much space each of this consume. Usually (1) consumes most, so if you want to cleanup some space you may want to delete apps on external storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I emailed him to see if that is still the case.

thevoiceless said:
I was under the impression that system data was stored on the other ~3GB that I don't have access to (16GB - 12.96GB out of the box).
Are you saying that I'm now losing more space to stuff I have no control over? And if so, is there a way to figure out what is using so much space?
And yes, I said in my post that I'm running stock rooted 4.2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
16GB is unformatted storage. (Usually counted with 1000 bytes =1kbyte.)
You will loose storage for formatting (1024B=1kB), then there is the system.
That is also counted in the "16GB".
the system also needs some more space for cache etc.
With root you can view it, see the attachment for what I have there.
As you said you have root, why can't you view it?
I guess I may have misunderstood you in the first place...
Gesendet von meinem Nexus 4 mit Tapatalk 2

Yes, you have misunderstood me. Look at the DiskUsage screenshot I posted in my original post. I'm not referring to the /system directory, I'm referring to some directory called System data that shows up on my internal storage, but it only shows up in DiskUsage. The space is shown as used in file browsers (such as Solid Explorer), but I'm unable to view what is actually taking up the space.

-Ignore-

Um...did you mean to post the same thing twice?

99.99999% sure it's your backups, as you edited your OP to show. No such space hog exists on my 8GB N4... 5.67 GB total space, currently have 4.09 GB free... bone stock 4.2.1

nbell13 said:
99.99999% sure it's your backups, as you edited your OP to show. No such space hog exists on my 8GB N4... 5.67 GB total space, currently have 4.09 GB free... bone stock 4.2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's definitely a large part of it. I just deleted one of my two backups and the "system data" space was cut in half. It's still not exactly the same size as the remaining backup, but perhaps there's some other stuff in there as well.

thevoiceless said:
Um...did you mean to post the same thing twice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry Tapatalk -.-
But the other guy is right, Backups of custom recoveries are are stored there.

Same issue
I find the same directory "System Data" but it is in system directory, data even in the sd card, i got a rooted Huawei y200 and i need free space but how can i gain some space? if these "System data" goes from 5mb to 70mb that in my device is critical cause it have a limited space memory.
Even a clear the applets used by busybox using this file found in this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1853419, works fine but only give me some kbs, so i want to try with this.
I will appreciate your help.
best regards.

game data and such goes there too. if you have any large games/apps, they take that space.

simms22 said:
game data and such goes there too. if you have any large games/apps, they take that space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
yeah i got installed some biggest games up to 45mb but they are in the ext partition with their dalvik and libs apps bigguest than 4mb on sd and i alredy done a cleanup of stock apps and provider apps, i tested many apps and later uninstall it and clean with sd maid, but I'm newbie and i dont know if some files still keep in memory after that or if this "System data" is like an recycle bin or something like that.

Luissin said:
Thanks for the reply.
yeah i got installed some biggest games up to 45mb but they are in the ext partition with their dalvik and libs apps bigguest than 4mb on sd and i alredy done a cleanup of stock apps and provider apps, i tested many apps and later uninstall it and clean with sd maid, but I'm newbie and i dont know if some files still keep in memory after that or if this "System data" is like an recycle bin or something like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
look in the android folder in your storage, it has a data and obb folder. thats where your "system data" is. you can look and see what it contains. for me it has some of my big game data, my music that i store on the phone for google play music, and other such stuff

Reply
simms22 said:
look in the android folder in your storage, it has a data and obb folder. thats where your "system data" is. you can look and see what it contains. for me it has some of my big game data, my music that i store on the phone for google play music, and other such stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did it, and only found the data folder with media, maps and other with up to 2mb size between the 3 folders and no obb, where else can i search?

Luissin said:
I did it, and only found the data folder with media, maps and other with up to 2mb size between the 3 folders and no obb, where else can i search?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you emptied your cache(s)? it can take a lot of space if not emptied every so often. also, the browser cache.
---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 PM ----------
Luissin said:
I did it, and only found the data folder with media, maps and other with up to 2mb size between the 3 folders and no obb, where else can i search?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
btw, are you sure your android folder only takes up a few mb's?? mine takes 3.4gb..

Try looking in /data/media/ and checking them folders.
Don't check the 0 folder as that is your sdcard
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Reply
simms22 said:
have you emptied your cache(s)? it can take a lot of space if not emptied every so often. also, the browser cache.
---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 PM ----------
btw, are you sure your android folder only takes up a few mb's?? mine takes 3.4gb..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I clean cache 1 or 2 times a day for the same reason no empty space and the cache & data partition share this free memory for sure because always have the same amount and only are 15 to 20mb, the android folder is in \HWUserData\Android and \sdcard\Android both have the same files custom.dat, data folder and inside this 3 apps folder com.cooliris.media(52kb), com.google.android.apps.maps(1.07mb), com.google.android.apps.translate(24kb) and a file .nomedia.
Sorry for cant put some screenshoot but wont work fine the app and i dont understand the sdk method

Luissin said:
I clean cache 1 or 2 times a day for the same reason no empty space and the cache & data partition share this free memory for sure because always have the same amount and only are 15 to 20mb, the android folder is in \HWUserData\Android and \sdcard\Android both have the same files custom.dat, data folder and inside this 3 apps folder com.cooliris.media(52kb), com.google.android.apps.maps(1.07mb), com.google.android.apps.translate(24kb) and a file .nomedia.
Sorry for cant put some screenshoot but wont work fine the app and i dont understand the sdk method
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you dont need any broken apps for screenshots.. its native to your phone
power button + volume down takes a screenshot, hold them down for a second or two.

Reply
simms22 said:
you dont need any broken apps for screenshots.. its native to your phone
power button + volume down takes a screenshot, hold them down for a second or two.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cant did it, wont work or this device is a diferent way, but i find an trial app that work...

[Q] storage space running out

hi,
i have a storage issue that i'll like to ask the gurus.. I've just moved from PSX's v8.5 (4.3) to PSX v3 (4.4) and along the way, I've made numerous backups just in case. after flashing v3 and hellscore b43, i ran into a storage space issue where my N4 told me i had insufficient space to install more apps, to work system functions, anything. Ive attached a screenshot of my storage, but it seems to be there is a good 5-6gb of space unaccounted for? i have v little songs in my phone, no movies, little apps as well. its rooted. can anyone point to as to how i can solve this?
thanks!
to add on, I've used storage analyser to better understand by storage, and it says i have 9.87gb available, whilte the stock storage details shows the number at 611mb.
help pls?

thejiajielee said:
hi,
i have a storage issue that i'll like to ask the gurus.. I've just moved from PSX's v8.5 (4.3) to PSX v3 (4.4) and along the way, I've made numerous backups just in case. after flashing v3 and hellscore b43, i ran into a storage space issue where my N4 told me i had insufficient space to install more apps, to work system functions, anything. Ive attached a screenshot of my storage, but it seems to be there is a good 5-6gb of space unaccounted for? i have v little songs in my phone, no movies, little apps as well. its rooted. can anyone point to as to how i can solve this?
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try flashing SuperSU via the recovery.
Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013)

hi, I've tried that, but to no avail..

ive also realised that system data takes up a huge chunk, more than 6gb. which is where most of the missing storage is. help, anyone?

thejiajielee said:
ive also realised that system data takes up a huge chunk, more than 6gb. which is where most of the missing storage is. help, anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you downgraded to the rom where you don't have this problem?
Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013)

I only just realised I was having the same issue when I got an insufficient storage available message while trying to update some apps. To solve it reboot into recovery then go on backup and restore and delete any unnecessary backups you have, if the ROM's working now then you could do with deleting all of the old backups and making one fresh one with the new ROM. Also do the 'free unused space' thing in CWM, I had no backups but somehow there was almost 3 gigs of space being wasted by CWM. There's probably something similar in TWRP if you use that

thejiajielee said:
ive also realised that system data takes up a huge chunk, more than 6gb. which is where most of the missing storage is. help, anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've got the right app. check your /data directory to see what's chewing up space. I bet it's TWRP or other stuff stored by your recovery manager.

Use this great app to check whats taking up space: Storage analyzer

When u make full backups they won't show up in the system storage scan. Go to the file directly n try deleting an old backup. I guarantee u will see more space available after u do. Each backup is usually about 400-500mb depending on how many apps n other data u have
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Or maybe you got shrinkage problem which is pretty normal when upgrading (seeing that you flashed 4.4.2 rom over 4.3 rom). Your 16gb nexus was shrinked to 8gb. The easiest way to fix it is by formatting your internal in recovery (or flash stock recovery and do factory reset). Do make backup of your things though cause you'll lose them.

[Q] Internal memory leak?

So I've been looking around and trying to fix this problem myself but I've had no luck. I've almost completely run out of internal memory. I'm not sure if its a memory leak or what but its starting to affect my phone's ability to update apps. Currently, of the 16gb I have <800mb left but it used to be as low as ~50mb.
At first I tried just moving every app I could to my SD card, and I already transfer and delete every picture and video I have on my phone asap. So afterwards I wiped cache a few times. Finally I completely wiped and reset my phone to stock and still only freed up 1gb of space. I then flashed the negalite ROM. With this new rom and the core set of apps I use, all moved to the SD card, I have 829mb of internal memory free.
I understand that I really only have 8gb to play around with, but this screencap shows that I have 7gb being taken up by miscellaneous files, yet when I check what's in there it does not add up to 7gb (nothing below those files goes above a few hundred kb tops). Is there any way to free up more memory without deleting literally every app I have? I don't think I even have that many frivolous apps.
So to summarize, my phone is a sprint s4 SPH-L720 with 4.4.2 running the Negalite rom, with only 800mb/16gb internal free, trying to free up more. Not sure if its a memory leak or what.

Do you have any nandroid backups with either philz,cwm, or twrp recovery? If so those are about 3-5gbs each.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Using a file manager that can show hidden files (ES can) look around and see if you see any folder named something like lost.dir or lost+found it might be that some deleted items were sent or left their instead of going into oblivion. I have had it occur before, after deleting the contents it freed up several 100s of MB to GB of memory.
It's possible it could be this.

daniel4653 said:
Do you have any nandroid backups with either philz,cwm, or twrp recovery? If so those are about 3-5gbs each.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm I just went through the CWM folder and deleted some old backups supposedly but those were only like 9mb big... The mysteries keep mounting!
And catfood I tried looking through the files with file explorer but I couldn't find a lost or a variation of it.
Thanks for the replies though every little bit helps!

pinoysw1mmer said:
Hm I just went through the CWM folder and deleted some old backups supposedly but those were only like 9mb big... The mysteries keep mounting!
And catfood I tried looking through the files with file explorer but I couldn't find a lost or a variation of it.
Thanks for the replies though every little bit helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any cloud apps like Google Drive or something of the like? Try checking sync options, or the programs settings, something might be downloading data to cache offline.

Backup your data!
Install philz_touch_6.19.6-jflte recovery
then go to Mount and Storage Menu
do a format for{ system, cache, date and(( /data and /data/media ( /sdcard)))

jam97 said:
Backup your data!
Install philz_touch_6.19.6-jflte recovery
then go to Mount and Storage Menu
do a format for{ system, cache, date and(( /data and /data/media ( /sdcard)))
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do I have to install that one or can I just use CWM?
And catfood I will check my cloud settings.

pinoysw1mmer said:
Do I have to install that one or can I just use CWM?
And catfood I will check my cloud settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know but I used that recovery and it works for me.

6.0.1 Storage Calculator Error?

Hey all, I have a strange issue, tried all the obvious solutions, cleared caches, data, haven't wiped dalvik yet but eh. Got a storage space almost full error the other day so I linked some unlinked apps to the SD card, cleared cached data, moved images and downloads to folders in SD card and deleted what I didn't need and voila, problem solved, I cleared like 3 GB. I even tapped "Other", clicked "Explore", sorted that by size and delete files from the biggest folder (RAR files in downloads).
Idk if the image uploaded but here's a breakdown of my internal storage as it is right now:
-5.83 GB Used of 9.47 GB
-Apps 5.79 GB
-Images 30.71 MB
-Videos 20.00 KB
-Audio 224 KB
-Other 548 MB
-Cached Data 68.16 MB
NOW if you add all that up you get roughly 6.45 GB, which leaves like 616 MB just floating around. When i went into other and saw those RAR files, they totaled up to like 500-something MB and when I deleted it I noticed it fell off of the "Total Used" counter, but remained in "Other" counter.
Is there a way to reset the "Other" counter? The space is there I THINK, just seeing it there is kinda annoying. Wat Do?

By formatting the internal storage maybe.
You won't lose apps, as those are kept on a different partition.
The only things you will lose are the files on the internal storage and maybe some app settings (for apps that store data there).
TWRP also stores its settings there, so next time it boots it will be like you just flashed the recovery.

GDReaper said:
By formatting the internal storage maybe.
You won't lose apps, as those are kept on a different partition.
The only things you will lose are the files on the internal storage and maybe some app settings (for apps that store data there).
TWRP also stores its settings there, so next time it boots it will be like you just flashed the recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will try that now, will I have issues with link2sd or have to reflash xposed, gapps or cm?

noozman7190 said:
will try that now, will I have issues with link2sd or have to reflash xposed, gapps or cm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nevermind, stupid question I'm tired, seems like a lot of trouble for something that is so strange and isn't really doing anything bad

noozman7190 said:
nevermind, stupid question I'm tired, seems like a lot of trouble for something that is so strange and isn't really doing anything bad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never used link2sd.
But for the rest it's a big fat no.
Formatting the internal storage is exactly the same as formatting the microSD card.
I do recommend formatting it once in a while.
I usually do it at every ROM update.

GDReaper said:
I've never used link2sd.
But for the rest it's a big fat no.
Formatting the internal storage is exactly the same as formatting the microSD card.
I do recommend formatting it once in a while.
I usually do it at every ROM update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll do it tonight at work, I just cleared data from the unrar app I used for the rar files I had and that freed up about 100mb from the "Other" counter, didn't do anything for the total storage though

@GDReaper Wiping internal storage worked for me, even freed up more space than just the "Other". gr8 m8, I r8 8/8 Thank you!!!

Finding available internal memory

Hi all, just seeing if anyone can tell me why the storage screen says I only have 1.5gb of free memory when DiskUsage says I should have a lot more?
I have rooted my phone and using Xpower rom.
Pics attached. Thanks everyone.

Curiously, I ran into the same problem yesterday after a session of flashing new firmware and restoring backup of my phone. It had never occurred before.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/z5-compact/help/z5c-reporting-incorrect-storage-size-t3564059
Someone in this thread said the problem went away after a few reboots. I've rebooted about 3 times now, still shows 16GB available instead of 32GB.
I'll probably do some more flashing/restoring later on to see if that fixes anything.

You're showing pictures of different mounting points.
/internal shown in second picture is it's own virtual partition
/system shown in last picture is also it's own partition and has its own free space
The free space shown in android storage will only display the free space on the virtual data/internal storage so it looks perfectly fine to me.
Also external sdcard won't add to virtual internal data storage.

pitrus- said:
You're showing pictures of different mounting points.
/internal shown in second picture is it's own virtual partition
/system shown in last picture is also it's own partition and has its own free space
The free space shown in android storage will only display the free space on the virtual data/internal storage so it looks perfectly fine to me.
Also external sdcard won't add to virtual internal data storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh ok. Thanks for the reply. My total internal storage is meant to be 16gb. This is why I thought the two screenshots formed (most of) this 16gb.
So based on your information, where has the rest of my internal memory gone? The first DiskUsage screenshot says I have 8.24gb in total storage. Is the rest not usable because it's a private system partition?
Also I've attached another screenshot. Is it normal for the internal system to use up 7.76gb?

About 8GB for a Sony Android system ROM sounds about right, lots of bloatware and included apps. On a 16GB Sony phone, half is available for photos, music and apps/apps data.
That's why you should never buy a phone with only 16GB in 2016/2017. My Oneplus 3t with 128GB is a hair saver. ?

pitrus- said:
You're showing pictures of different mounting points.
/internal shown in second picture is it's own virtual partition
/system shown in last picture is also it's own partition and has its own free space
The free space shown in android storage will only display the free space on the virtual data/internal storage so it looks perfectly fine to me.
Also external sdcard won't add to virtual internal data storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pitrus- said:
About 8GB for a Sony Android system ROM sounds about right, lots of bloatware and included apps. On a 16GB Sony phone, half is available for photos, music and apps/apps data.
That's why you should never buy a phone with only 16GB in 2016/2017. My Oneplus 3t with 128GB is a hair saver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ack. Ok, I'll try remove bloatware then (although I thought Xpower did already).
Yeah I broke my beloved z1c camera and thought z5c would be a nice replacement... Really wanted a small phone.

kickling said:
Ack. Ok, I'll try remove bloatware then (although I thought Xpower did already).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uninstalling uninstallable bloatware will reclaim a few MB of space, but removing preloaded system bloatware won't help much in freeing up usable space. The system partition is a fixed size, generally inaccessible, and any unused space in there isn't counted towards total available free space.
BTW, I thought you were asking about the 16GB total space in the first snapshot in your original post. The Z5C has 32GB internal storage space, not 16GB. Just thought you should know.

mhaha said:
Uninstalling uninstallable bloatware will reclaim a few MB of space, but removing preloaded system bloatware won't help much in freeing up usable space. The system partition is a fixed size, generally inaccessible, and any unused space in there isn't counted towards total available free space.
BTW, I thought you were asking about the 16GB total space in the first snapshot in your original post. The Z5C has 32GB internal storage space, not 16GB. Just thought you should know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.... Say what?! I'm supposed to have 32gb? Why does my storage screen say I've only got 16gb? 16gb hidden system?

kickling said:
.... Say what?! I'm supposed to have 32gb? Why does my storage screen say I've only got 16gb? 16gb hidden system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's what I was trying to say in my original reply up there. I assumed you were confused about the anomaly in total internal storage, something that I recently experienced and was also reported by some other folks.
I've found a supposed solution after a bit of Googling, but I'm not sure if it's the right answer. I plan to test it out later on.
But yes, you're supposed to have 32GB total internal storage, inclusive of all partitions hidden or otherwise. After deducting the OS and stuff, there should be 21~22GB of usable free space left.

mhaha said:
Well, that's what I was trying to say in my original reply up there. I assumed you were confused about the anomaly in total internal storage, something that I recently experienced and was also reported by some other folks.
I've found a supposed solution after a bit of Googling, but I'm not sure if it's the right answer. I plan to test it out later on.
But yes, you're supposed to have 32GB total internal storage, inclusive of all partitions hidden or otherwise. After deducting the OS and stuff, there should be 21~22GB of usable free space left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well then. I feel dumb!
Coming from the z1c I guess I've gotten used to having 16gb internal memory.

mhaha said:
Well, that's what I was trying to say in my original reply up there. I assumed you were confused about the anomaly in total internal storage, something that I recently experienced and was also reported by some other folks.
I've found a supposed solution after a bit of Googling, but I'm not sure if it's the right answer. I plan to test it out later on.
But yes, you're supposed to have 32GB total internal storage, inclusive of all partitions hidden or otherwise. After deducting the OS and stuff, there should be 21~22GB of usable free space left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
..... I'm reading that you either need to reflash firmware, or if you're lucky repair the system partition in Twrp.
TBA...

kickling said:
..... I'm reading that you either need to reflash firmware, or if you're lucky repair the system partition in Twrp.
TBA...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I can confirm a complete fresh flash of stock firmware restores the total space to 32GB. I didn't touch the system partition, so I'm not sure whether a repair of system in TWRP would do anything, and there's no means for me to test it now.
Hopefully, a restore of my nandroid backup will preserve the correct total storage space.
EDIT: Yup, restore successful and total space is 32GB. FWIW, the "solution" I mentioned earlier was a discussion for a Nexus device, and it said it's necessary to restore stock recovery first. Not sure the exact cause of problem or actual solution to fiz the problem, but anyway reflash worked for me.

mhaha said:
Yes, I can confirm a complete fresh flash of stock firmware restores the total space to 32GB. I didn't touch the system partition, so I'm not sure whether a repair of system in TWRP would do anything, and there's no means for me to test it now.
Hopefully, a restore of my nandroid backup will preserve the correct total storage space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Twrp system repair did not fix it.
Time to flash....

If you have twrp in boot, this problem happens.
The device ends up making the system read only, and then gives you the left over /data
Then when a function calls ro.hardware, its inaccessible.
You won't be able to fix it if you don't have TWRP in the recovery partition. When you do a restore, you'll get put in to a boot loop, if anything other than the data partition is selected
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3564059