Storage is write-protected....please help - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello
I made a full backup with philz and transferred it to my pc. Tried to delete the backup folder from my internal sd card but can't. Get this message:
Cannot delete backup: the storage is write-protected. Remove the write-protection and try again.
BTW, I'm on stock kk 4.4.2
Thanks for your help

By default, CWM and Philz protect the nandroid data from being deleted since they utilize an incremental backup scheme rather than the older image file setup. For example, let's say you have three nandroid backups: A, B, and C. If the nandroid data wasn't write protected and you delete backup A, you would screw up ALL your nandroid backups. A is the master backup. When the recovery makes backup B, it only backs up the changes made between A and B. If you then made backup C, it would back up the changes between A AND B, and C. Since the possibility of screwing up all your backups by deleting the oldest is a major problem, CWM and Philz write protect the storage.
Go into Philz, then enter the backups menu. Delete the existing backups using its delete function, then select "free unused storage data" to recover the space. After doing that, switch to TWRP 2.8.6.0, as it doesn't make incremental backups and thus doesn't write protect the storage space. Also, unlike CWM and Philz, you can place the backups on your MicroSD card..

Done....thanks very much Strephon

hi, i have the same problem and it work, thanks!

Related

[Q] Secondary Bootloader Backup Save Directory?

I have done several backups of my device via Secondary Bootloader, now it's retaining a chuck of my microsd card's memory. Where is the backup saved so I can go ahead and delete them and keep one fresh backup?
Thanks!
sdcard/clockworkmod/backup

storage question

every time i do a cwm back up it saves to phone storage not my sd card and it dose the something for titanium back up help.
m
I don't know if cwm can save the nandroid backup on the sdcard, but in twrp recovery on the backup page you can select where to save the file. As far as titanium backup, go into your preferences and select your sdcard for the backup location.
Yes. In oudhs cwm recovery, you can choose to backup and restore to external card. In titanium, you can go into settings and choose the physical SD card as your backup path.

[Q] why my storage space is vanished?

Using GS4 I9505, and my internal storage is getting shorter shorter, day by day. almost like its vanished. i've check emulated 0 and legacy drives nothing there. but as i gethered it coz of CWM, now using twrp, uninstalled CWM but still storage isn't available for usage.
Your space is still lost because it's still allocated to CWM for nandroid backups, even though you no longer have CWM on the device. Therefore, you need to put CWM back on the device, go into its backups and storage menu, delete any existing backups it made, then free the allocated space.
When you put TWRP back on to the S4, your space should return.
He can delete the CMW folder from the storage. The backups are there and they are not hidden.
I provided an in-depth explanation of this in an earlier thread on the same topic, but in essence CWM protects the nandroid backups space so nothing else can write to that area. This is because CWM performs incremental backups by default, and deleting older restore points messes up all of them. The protection persists even after CWM is removed, so when switching recoveries, all backups need to be deleted in CWM, and all allocated space freed using the "free allocated space" option in the backup and restore menu.
EDIT: To point out the obvious, there would be no need for a "free allocated space" option in CWM if the space weren't protected.
Well, that's stupid. With TWRP I can simply go inside the folder and delete the backups (without the need of booting into recovery and deleting them from there).
Calling it stupid is a bit harsh, and besides, Koush probably will disagree with you.
By default CWM is set to do incremental backups and does this as a space-saving feature. For example purposes let's say a nandroid backup is 2GB. Using the standard .TAR method four nandroid backups would take up 8GB. Switch to .DUP and those same four backups may only take 3GB. This is because .DUP only backs up the files that have changed between the current system and the previous backups, rather than backing up the entire partition. Since CWM in .DUP doesn't back up the entire partition when making its backups, it's vitally important that the backups be protected. Otherwise, deleting an older backup makes it impossible to restore any later backups.
The example I used in my other discussion to illustrate this was four backups, labeled A through D. A is the master backup and B through D are the incremental backups. If the space wasn't protected, deleting backup C in a file manager would render backup D invalid because of missing files. Naturally, deleting backup A would render all subsequent backups invalid, as it is the master backup.
In CWM it is possible to switch from .DUP to .TAR and thus stop CWM from allocating space for backups. The OP didn't do that, which is why his space disappeared even after switching to TWRP. There may be a manual method of removing the allocation through a terminal, but it's simply easier to restore CWM, delete the backups, free the space, then switch back to TWRP.

i9505 reporting wrong internal memory availability

hi folks,
i have an i9505 running stock rooted 4.4.2. i noticed that under device storage it is telling me that of the 9.95gb available internal memory, only about half is free. it says "applications" is using about 3gb. however all the files on the internal storage only add up to about 800mb. i have used es file explorer's sd card analyzer to look at all the files on the internal storage, and it confirms only 800mb or so is there. where is the 4gb or so other data?
w.
You're rooted. Do you have a custom recovery installed?
yes i have CWM installed. i just used it to wipe the cache partition and davlik cache. didn't make any difference.
You made nandroid backups however, right? Two things you need to know.
1. CWM by default protects the internal storage where nandroid backups are stored. You need to delete the backups and delete protected storage to get the space back.
2. CWM is no longer supported. Switch to TWRP as certain ROMs will not install with CWM. In addition, TWRP does not protect the storage like CWM, and it allows nandroid backups to be stored on the MicroSD.
yes i have several CWM full backups but they are on the ext SD card. no backups on the internal memory. what is the protected storage you're referring to? CWM is supported for a stock kit kat 4.4.2 rom isn't it?
In CWM the location where the nandroid backups are made is on the internal storage, and is protected from being modified by the user outside of the recovery. This is because of how CWM makes backups. The default backup format is to take incremental backups. The space is allocated so that the end user cannot randomly delete backups outside of the recovery, because in an incremental backup only the changes between the last backup and the current ROM state are backed up. Deleting a backup between the earliest and latest backups screws up all backups following the deleted date. It is possible to change the way CWM does backups, but most end users don't dig deeply enough into the recovery to find these things out.
CWM's protected storage space is on the internal storage, and it is the biggest reason your internal storage isn't reading the correct amount. You need to head into the backup menu and free all unused storage to get that storage back. Once you do that, you really want to install TWRP, because it avoids this problem altogether.

Nandroid Backup Application

For those who have rooted their tablet take a look at Online Nandroid Backup and the corresponding Nandroid Manager applications in the Play store. The backup app provides a clockwork recovery type backup that can be saved to internal storage or to your SD card. I have not tried the cloud option.
The manager app allows you to review your backup and to perform a restore.
What I have not tried yet, it to consolidate the backup into a zip file. If this works the we could use the combination of the bakcup app and the Cyanogen recovery to restore previous backups from the recovery mode, and work with any custom ROMs that become available.
Again, this does require root, but that is very easy to obtain.:good:

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