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Sorry if this is a stupid question but I just got my Hero and thus far I love it but from what I've been reading about ap2sd it seems like it's a wise choice to do this, but I have a few questions.
1. If you root the phone and install ap2sd, all apps downloaded from there are stored onto the SD card as well as all their data, no? Meaning this will free up usable memory for the phone when you have several apps open at a time...?
2. If I root my phone and install ap2sd, is it still possible to install any official, updated ROMs from HTC without having to re-root and re-install ap2sd?
3. If I make a back-up of my ROM before rooting, then if I have any issues with the phone I could restore that and then it would seem like nothing has ever been done to the phone, right?
I'm a bit new to the whole messing with you phone thing, which is why I got an android phone to begin with, so it's exciting but I also don't want to brick the thing...hence all the questions.
Thanks.
NumbGreenThumb said:
Sorry if this is a stupid question but I just got my Hero and thus far I love it but from what I've been reading about ap2sd it seems like it's a wise choice to do this, but I have a few questions.
1. If you root the phone and install ap2sd, all apps downloaded from there are stored onto the SD card as well as all their data, no? Meaning this will free up usable memory for the phone when you have several apps open at a time...?
2. If I root my phone and install ap2sd, is it still possible to install any official, updated ROMs from HTC without having to re-root and re-install ap2sd?
3. If I make a back-up of my ROM before rooting, then if I have any issues with the phone I could restore that and then it would seem like nothing has ever been done to the phone, right?
I'm a bit new to the whole messing with you phone thing, which is why I got an android phone to begin with, so it's exciting but I also don't want to brick the thing...hence all the questions.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
1. When you open up a lot of applications at a time, the memory being affected is the RAM which is different from the concept of ap2sd. On the HTC hero you have 512 ROM memory to install programs. The os and customisations oh HTC takes a good part of that and you remain like 150mb ROM for programs. If you do not install lots and lots of programs, ap2sd is somewhat useless IMHO.
2.You don't have to unroot ... to install the updates from HTC. It will be unrooted by itself during the process but you can use custom roms ( like Paul's ones ) where root and a2sd is already integrated in the rom process.
3. Yes it is always advised to make a nandroid backup whenever upgrading. If you encounter any problem, you'll be able to revert back .
I use ap2sd as i only had 43mb left on my phone. i`ve just installed all my apps again now and my phone memory is still at 153mb
Very happy with it.
Thanks for the replies. I guess I wasn't too clear about the whole memory usage. I understand that open apps are in the RAM but I was wondering if you use ap2sd if all the stored user data for the applications are then stored on the SD card along with the application itself.
As for the rooting, if you're phone is rooted, are you still able to easily install updated roms from HTC (not custom roms) or will it yell at you? I suspect it won't care, but I'm just curious.
Sorry for the lame questions. This whole hacking your phone thing is completely new to me. It's pretty damn cool though...
NumbGreenThumb said:
As for the rooting, if you're phone is rooted, are you still able to easily install updated roms from HTC (not custom roms) or will it yell at you? I suspect it won't care, but I'm just curious.
Sorry for the lame questions. This whole hacking your phone thing is completely new to me. It's pretty damn cool though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well concerning the OTA updates, nobody knows for sure cause till now , none is out yet. Some say only branded phones will have OTA, unbranded ones will download firmwares from the htc site ( just like it was with previous htc's)
But anyway, even if you rooted ur phone, u can always download the update and apply it. its no problem.
NumbGreenThumb said:
Thanks for the replies. I guess I wasn't too clear about the whole memory usage. I understand that open apps are in the RAM but I was wondering if you use ap2sd if all the stored user data for the applications are then stored on the SD card along with the application itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many apps will store user data on SD card without having to use A2SD.
Regards,
Dave
Did some searching on this but it came up blank, so maybe someone has a brilliant idea for this
Almost every other day we are getting new builds for Android. I'm sure many of you are like me and have a set of APKs you install with every build. For example SWYPE.
I would like to know if there is a way, when installing a new build, you can have certain apps auto-installed. This would really save me time.
Can't you just put them in the "AndroidApps" folder that usually comes with every build..?
shadiku said:
Can't you just put them in the "AndroidApps" folder that usually comes with every build..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wasn't sure if that was the proper way it was done. I tried that once, needless to say it didn't work out to well. Had to eat a hard reset.
Anyways, can anyone confirm that this is the best way to do it, or if you know of another that would be great. Please share!
Yup!
yes, i'm 99.9% sure that this is a way to auto-install apps onto your phone, as i've read this in other threads which say the same thing
I did this myself with darkstone's builds. I just loaded up the android apps folder. On second boot I had issues so I then deleted all those apps through winmo and everything was fine again. Not sure with this folder that everytime you boot it tries to reinstall or not. Would like some clarification on that.
Not worked for me
I would suggest downloading 7zip file manager, then when you download your desired rom then just open it up. Navigate to the data/apps folder and drop your apps in there, when you flash the rom then your personal apps will be flashed and installed as if they came with the rom already.
That's what I do and I have never had an issue.
Or there always is ADB
HypoTurtle said:
Or there always is ADB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are some adb apk tools that could probably do a batch install
Am i right that after putting those in your folder, after hard reset all those apps that were there will reinstall(those that you wanted, and those you uninstalled)? Or there will be trouble uninstalling as it is part of ROM?
Personally i used one of those App Backup & Restore apps from market. I had to spend 10 minutes pressing "Accept" cause they install by regular way, but it was quite fast anyway.
Marquo said:
Am i right that after putting those in your folder, after hard reset all those apps that were there will reinstall(those that you wanted, and those you uninstalled)? Or there will be trouble uninstalling as it is part of ROM?
Personally i used one of those App Backup & Restore apps from market. I had to spend 10 minutes pressing "Accept" cause they install by regular way, but it was quite fast anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now which folder are you referring to? When I mentioned placing apps, I was talking about putting them into the data/app folder of the rom zip you are flashing so they will be installed on first boot.
As for backing up and restoring apps, I suggest using MyBackup as it does apps plus their associated data as a batch backup/restore. It doesn't require you to accept each one.
Please mybackup will do sms/mms, call logs, browser shortcuts, and so on. Here is the market link for it: MyBackup
chrisrj28 said:
Now which folder are you referring to? When I mentioned placing apps, I was talking about putting them into the data/app folder of the rom zip you are flashing so they will be installed on first boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got you right, and i thought that as they are part of ROM, they will be saved and restored when hard reseting(even if you uninstalled them on purpose).
Thiss app sounds really nice, i shall try it out.
EDIT
Look what i found when i came to forum by main site of xda: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=23291051
Seems nice.
I have a Vibrant with fusion 1.1 that is going back to T-mobile. Is there a way to just clone everything on this phone to the new phone.
Can I just copy Titanium backup form the old phone and put it on the sd card of the new one. Is there a better method?
You need to flash back to stock using odin, just go to the development section and click om the.sticky, under odin roms. Click the.stock one and flash,
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
iwillkillyou said:
You need to flash back to stock using odin, just go to the development section and click om the.sticky, under odin roms. Click the.stock one and flash,
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That wasn't his question... Like at all...
I'd do a nandroid and back up the apps and data in titanium and save them to the SD and then put that SD in the new phone that comes.
Oh haha sorry I didnt read the whole thread, yea peform a nandroid
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
kuhan said:
That wasn't his question... Like at all...
I'd do a nandroid and back up the apps and data in titanium and save them to the SD and then put that SD in the new phone that comes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What would happen if I copied all the contents of the internal memory (all files ,all folders) then copied those over the contents of the new phones internal memory?. Nandroid and TB are not normally saved to the external SD card.
Or should I just load the new rom on the new phone and just copy the TB folder to the new phone and restore from that?
Nandroid and titanium are a good start but neither of those will do things like modem files.
So I would add on the new phone do a base install of fusion 1.1 with the appropriate kernel, i think you said was your rom, then a nandroid restore and that should get you there
ransome7 said:
I have a Vibrant with fusion 1.1 that is going back to T-mobile. Is there a way to just clone everything on this phone to the new phone.
Can I just copy Titanium backup form the old phone and put it on the sd card of the new one. Is there a better method?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll chime in with my opinion. Granted my opinion comes from my experiences constantly experimenting with different roms. I've flashed the phone this month almost as often as I've received actual phone calls for crying out loud!
The amount of time expended on looking for such a perfect method seems to be greater than the amount of time spent merely reconstructing an equivalent environment.
Keeping all of my contacts on google and using appbrain to have the ability to keep a known inventory of apps...I can reconstruct my daily driver environment from one rom to another in about 30 minutes max without the need to explicitly backup anything.
Though this may not work for everyone, it surely would work for most. Just a thought...
Using AppBrain would mean you would have to constantly re-download your apps. Also, this does not save the settings and what about apps that are not on the market?
I use Titanium Backup if I want to transfer all my apps and settings. Nandroid would be very appropriate to transfer over all the of phone's data, granted you also manually include the correct modem and kernel.
Doing a Titanium Restore surely takes less time then redownloading and installing from the market, especially if you have the Pro version as it is MUCH MUCH quicker.
kangxi said:
Using AppBrain would mean you would have to constantly re-download your apps. Also, this does not save the settings and what about apps that are not on the market?
I use Titanium Backup if I want to transfer all my apps and settings. Nandroid would be very appropriate to transfer over all the of phone's data, granted you also manually include the correct modem and kernel.
Doing a Titanium Restore surely takes less time then redownloading and installing from the market, especially if you have the Pro version as it is MUCH MUCH quicker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium can save some time, but honestly not enough to write home about, at least for me. It's a matter of a few minutes different in my experience.
The reason why I do not use Titanium, despite the fact that it can save some time is that it can lead to complications especially when bouncing between 2.1 and 2.2 derivative roms, depending on what you back up of course. I'll use it when I'm staying within the domain of 2.1...or staying within the domain of 2.2. Crossing those domains however I never use Titanium. I've had more problems than not, and admittedly that may be due to my ignorance of what things are truly safe to restore across different versions of Android.
Then again I'm probably unusual compared to the OP, in that I experiment with EVERYTHING, up to and including a little bit of my own firmware cooking after the fact. Every firmware and experimental firmware and filesystem hack has at some point been on this phone, but that's how I roll.
Doing without deliberate backups hasn't drastically changed my restore times. Setting up the few apps that require setup takes a matter of seconds when I decide to use that app.
It's nice to get a fresh install - just TB and and reinstall after!
iwillkillyou said:
Oh haha sorry I didnt read the whole thread, yea peform a nandroid
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You didn't even read the title of the thread before clicking it, bro....
-bZj
if you want exact - nandroid
otherwise use TitaniumBackup Pro
This is what I would do. I would perform a nandroid. After doing so I would then copy everything in the internal sd to your computer. When the new phone comes. Copy everything into the new phone's internal sd. Root your phone, install clockwork mod. Flash a new rom if you want if not no biggy. Load up into clockwork mod, do an advanced restore, restore data only. Reboot. Reboot again. Load back into clockwork mod, clear cache and dalvik. Reboot twice. Run fix permissions. Reboot. Everything should work with no errors and it will look identical to your last vibrant. You could condense this but I wrote it so that you could install buncha diff roms without having to do titanium restore because that just takes a ****ing long time if you have a **** load of apps installed.
Mouahmong said:
This is what I would do. I would perform a nandroid. After doing so I would then copy everything in the internal sd to your computer. When the new phone comes. Copy everything into the new phone's internal sd. Root your phone, install clockwork mod. Flash a new rom if you want if not no biggy. Load up into clockwork mod, do an advanced restore, restore data only. Reboot. Reboot again. Load back into clockwork mod, clear cache and dalvik. Reboot twice. Run fix permissions. Reboot. Everything should work with no errors and it will look identical to your last vibrant. You could condense this but I wrote it so that you could install buncha diff roms without having to do titanium restore because that just takes a ****ing long time if you have a **** load of apps installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the lengthy explanation , that makes the most sense.
I will try this method . Thanks for taking the time.
Hey rancome7 - did you try this method? How did it work for you.. I may just do this right now as im in the same situation of wanting to clone my Vibrant to a new Vibrant
Question - wont restoring data from a nandroid after installing a new ROM cause the rom to act funny since the old data may not agree with it or overwrite something?
I am looking at switching builds but dont want to have to reinstall everything post the new build install on my sd card.
What back up system do people recommend, and do any actually allow a full backup/restore that will work?
If not then i will have to reinstall everything, but that seems a really long winded way about switching builds!
Thanks
I save the data .img file from the current build. Then I copy the new Android folder on the root of the mem stick. Then I put the data .img file from the old intall back in the new folder.
The above suggestion doesn't always work. If you're going to a completely different build then it may cause problems.
I use Titanium Backup Pro. It does cost, but not much and allows a full backup and restore of all apps and data.
i just use the free titanium backup to backup all my apps. google sync for contacts and then all i have to do it set up a couple of things like wifi and it work
I used to use the free version, but the last restore I did had nearly 200 apps in it, and you have to click "install" and then "ok" for every app with the free version. The paid one does it without you needing to do anything - that's the only reason I paid for it. (Oh, and it can freeze apps too, which is good for finding out what would happen if you uninstalled an app.)
I bought a Desire Z about two weeks before the 1.72.405.2 OTA update came along, and I allowed it to update (Yeah I know, this was after all my first Android device).
Anyway, lately my phones been running slowly and apps force closing, so I've decided to downgrade it and root it (psneuter method), and try some different ROM's.
What I was wondering is, what would be the best way without root, to backup as much of my data as possible, apps, sms, files, and also if possible a backup that I can use in case I scew it up, so I can get it back to the way it is now.
I have a copy of:-
RUU_Vision_HTC_WWE_1.34.405.5_Radio_12.28b.60.140e_26.03.02.26_M_release_155556_signed
which I believe is the stock ROM for this device, but as far as I know if it goes wrong I'll be unable to flash this as the update won't allow me to flash an earlier version..
Would I be able to mount and then backup the whole phone using adb or any other method.
I've been reading about it for a while now, and while I have lots of bits of information, I've been unable to find a good solution.
Thanks,
...John...
j0hn0n1 said:
I bought a Desire Z about two weeks before the 1.72.405.2 OTA update came along, and I allowed it to update (Yeah I know, this was after all my first Android device).
What I was wondering is, what would be the best way without root, to backup as much of my data as possible, apps, sms, files, and also if possible a backup that I can use in case I scew it up, so I can get it back to the way it is now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without root, a good app to backup your other apps is astro file manager, its available free from the market, you just have to hit menu, tools and it'll back up all the apps on your sd card, in terms of files, just make sure their all on your sd card and they'll be fine
Not sure how to back up SmS but i know their are apps out their, a point you may have forgotten is to make sure you back up your contacts as they all get wiped and I made this mistake, the easiest way to do that is to make sure your contacts sync up with your google account so after rooting, you can just sync them back,
Hope i helped!
Use google to remember what apps you've downloaded from market. Once associated, when you flash a new rom, google will automatically redownload all your associated apps. For sms, i suggest you download GoSMS and use their internal backup feature. It will save to sd and be visible to your stock sms app as well on restore.
Sent from my AOSP Virtuous Desire Z using XDA App
Ya but too many times google starts restoring apps that I uninstalled months ago. Great idea but bad implementation imo.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
Sorry I haven't replied, was in work all day yesterday.
I have Astro File Manager, but I hadn't even considered it, thanks. I have my contacts sync'd with Google, so it seems that as long as I backup my files and sms everything else should be done automatically anyway.
Go SMS seems worth getting anyway, as the bog standard Android messages app is seriously dull. I'll give it a try.
I had wondered about Google Market restoring apps, but I thought it would only reinstall apps that were installed at the last sync.
If you install an app and it screws up your phone, and do a factory reset then Google will just reinstall the app that caused all the problems in the first place.
Definitely a good idea, but needs more work.
Anyway, thanks for all the info, I'll give it try tonight, when I get back from work.
...John...
I find SMS Backup & Restore to be the best app for this purpose and I wouldn't recommend the backup feature from the market, as you said it is likely to give problems.
Without root though, the backup choices are somewhat limited for apps and such.
I've been using Super Manager by gpc. It works pretty good, plus offers a ton of other features that can be used with or without root.
I've backed up what I could, although it's typical that as soon as it's all gone I realised things that I should have wrote down (I had been using the wallet/pocket app and although I backed up all my apps, I'm guesing it won't have backed up any of the passwords, logins, bank details, etc).
Anyway, I've downgraded and successfully rooted my phone (through gfree), I have CID: 11111111 and S-Off, but I haven't installed and ROM's yet as I read somewhere that you are supposed to wipe everything between ROM's, am I wiping the Davlik cache or doing a factory reset (I mean won't the factory reset just reset my stock ROM back to it's original condition).
I'm also wondering about finding custom ROMs, on my dell streak I had installed ROM Manager and could get a list of any that were available.
I first installed ROM Manager and used it to flash recovery, but this time I've installed CWM first, so would it be safe to install ROM Manager now, will it want to flash a recovery over the one I have already.
Or is it not advisable to use ROM Manager, as I have previously heard of a few problems it may cause.
Thanks ...John...
Rom manager shouldn't give any problems, but for custom roms it's best to take a look at the development forum. If you don't like that you can still use the list in rommanager, it might be just me who prefers downloading roms to my pc first.
But before you install any of them I recommend you make a nandroid backup from recovery just to be safe.
I think the issues were that some people, not all, found problems flashing some of the gingerbread roms via Rom manager. Better to save the Rom to SD and then flash it via CWM.
Right I've done a nandroid backup, and I've saved one to another mSD card which I can keep somewhere just in case (probably a bit over cautious, but...).
I thought that by saving apps to an sd card, they would run from the sd when I restarted my phone, even the ones that I had moved previously with the application manager in settings are not seen.
Still reinstalling the ones I want isn't really that bad.
Seriously, somebody needs to sort out the Markets app backups feature, when I was setting up the phone at first, I specifically chose to not automatically sync with Google and that I would do it manually when needed. Then I went in to the market to get a file manager and the download failed, it was only when I looked at what was going on I realised it was already downloading and reinstalling 96 apps. I looked around for a 'cancel all' option and there isn't any, so I had to cancel them all one by one and then uninstall the ones that had managed to install.
A simple checklist to select the apps you want would be great, oh, and a cancel all button would be a bonus.
Anyway, things are not as much fun when they're too easy.
Thanks ...John...