Database Users

[Q] Best way to switch builds and not loose everything

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.)

Useful Tips for using Titanium Backup for newbies

Quick Tip for using Titanium Backup
1. Backup "application widgets". Once you restore your launcher, restore this and reboot so that your widgets will work and you don't have to reconfigure your home screen widgets (which would say "problem loading widgets" otherwise).
2. Backup "accounts" to remember the fact that you have "allowed" access to your google account for various apps (mainly google apps and any app that accesses your google account). This is also required to remember your facebook and skype passwords.
3. Backup "LogProvider" for the call log. A lot of people think call logs are backed up by "contacts storage" but they're not.
4. "contact storage" backups your speed dial
5. "dialer storage" backups your SMS/MMS. After you restore you need to reboot for it to take effect.
6. No need to backup "calendar 1.0". Just calendar 1.1. (this backups the setting not the actual content provided that you sync with google)
7. Most settings in Setting cannot be backed up (ie. Voip account, wifi hotspot ssid, ringtones, volume, etc). Simply re-enter them.
8. After upgrading your rom version or migrating to a different rom, before you restore, for "system" apps, make sure you check each one to see if the version has changed. If so, don't restore or you will probably have force-closes down the road. This is especially true if you move to cyanogen or miui, don't restore system apps at all.
9. Generally you don't need to save system apks unless you plan on uninstalling them to experiment instead of freezing.
10. Don't backup/restore "market" settings or you'll lose market links to your apps. In fact after you restore all your user apps you won't see all of them linked in the market even if titanium backup is set up to remember the links. Just use titanium to clear the market user data, restart market and you're ready to go.
11. Titanium backup does not save your default programs. (ie. DEFAULT browser, dialer, and for different file types).
12. Let TB save the settings to sd card. The next time you install TB you won't need to install the "pro" app. It remembers.
13. TB does not remember what apps are frozen. So after a reinstall, you need to refreeze whatever apps you want to freeze.
Other things good to know:
If you migrate to a new rom, although titanium Pro has an option to attempt to restore system apps to be compatible, try only restore user apps just to avoid force closes.
If you have a fixed set of apps you know you want to freeze, create a filter containing these apps. If you install a new rom, you can freeze all of them all at once without having to go through each.

Can you expand on what you mean in point 1.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Scenario:
I have, say, go launcher or touch wiz as my launcher, I put widgets on my home screen like weather, google search bar and maybe a music player widget. I can use TB to backup my launcher, which would supposedly backup where these widgets are located on your home screen. However after reinstalling the rom, if I restore my launcher without restoring "application widgets", the place where these widgets are supposed to be will show "problem loading widgets". And you would have to remove these problematic widgets and recreate them.
So when you backup your launcher, backup "application widgets" as well. When you restore, restore both of them. And preferably after restoring, reboot before you go back to your launcher
By the way "application widgets" is an actual backupable item in TB (shown in green)
Is this making any sense?

Thanks and yes you are making perfect sense.
Many times I've had to delete then replace widgets from my launcher after restoring using TB so I'm interested in where in TB to find this option.
I'm probably looking right at it but just can't see it. Can you steer my in the right direction in TB?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Nice to learn new things, especially the widgets, hate having the "problem loading widget" all the time.
Thanks for highlighting these.

Ok found it.
It's an item in the app list called "application widgets" with the TB icon next to it.
Cool thanks never noticed it before.
Great tip.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Having a Problem
Ok so I am tring to do an Extract from CWM Backup...
Just Flashed Jugg. 2.0 everything is running great!!!
But TBP is just stuck at Restoring 0% on my first program... I have even followed their help page. cleared the market memory... What am i doing wrong please help...
T-mobile - SGH - T989
ROM: Juggernaut 2.0

Bardouns said:
Ok so I am tring to do an Extract from CWM Backup...
Just Flashed Jugg. 2.0 everything is running great!!!
But TBP is just stuck at Restoring 0% on my first program... I have even followed their help page. cleared the market memory... What am i doing wrong please help...
T-mobile - SGH - T989
ROM: Juggernaut 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you enabled USB debugging and UNKNOWN sources?!

yes on both
---------- Post added at 08:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 AM ----------
Ok... Don't know WTF... but its working like lightning now... have no idea... didn't do anything except download google text to voice... weird

Been using it for years and didn't figure out the speeddial backup. Good post. A couple thoughts in general as far as backup strategy.... IMO freezing is better than removing system apps because space is not an issue with the sgs2 like it is with some (older) phones. Swap a lot of roms and sooner or later your are going to either on accident or purpose delete something you shouldn't have and then have to restore. Going down the list and freezing them only takes a minute and is readily reversible with the same end result. If you must be rid of them freeze them first and give it a few days for any oddness to show up. Then uninstall.
Agree on restoring system apps. Always a good way to get odd behavior or fc's and the like. Normally there is no need anyways as the new rom has the same system apps in it and most of the settings can be remembered elsewhere. I do back up system apps though in case I want to grab an apk that isn't in the new rom.
Also IMO its a good idea to copy the entire contents of the internal sd over to the pc after doing a nandroid and ti backup. This way if things go to hell you have everything. The process I use is to do a ti backup and then nandroid in recovery. I mount while still in recovery and copy everything over to a folder on the pc. Now I have all my pics, everything. I use the external sd for music and other items that I know will move from rom to rom so that I don't have to hassle with them. Do this and your covered in every way if you have problems with your ti backup or nandroid. Both can happen sometimes. Also if your phone dies, goes missing etc at least you have a backup as recent as your last rom swap which for us is probably not too long ago. lol I keep the most recent two backups and delete the oldest as I make new ones with each new rom. This only takes a few minutes extra during the rom swap and if you need it you will be glad you have it.

Thank you for tips!

Very helpful. Been using TB for a while now but did not know all the details!

thanx for your efforts...
got some useful tips. I thought I know TB, but I didn't.

Nice write-up!
Any advice on what to do when you try to restore an app and it tells you "problem parsing the package"?
Seam to happen more often with apps that did not come from Android Market or Amazon Appstore...

Very good guide and not just for newbie's.
Thank you.​

App Folders i nApp Draw
i cant seem to figure out where the folders in the app draw are actually stored. i tried to do a restore from a previous rom (apps only, widgets ect) but im not sure where to go for app folders, thats if it will even do this for me.

Many Thanks...
...to the OP & others for this thread & the tips in it ;-)
Just rooted yesterday & ran TI backup. Have run it again incorporating the tips in this thread. Very good suggestion to copy the lot over to PC as well.
Also, people should remember to make a copy of their EFS file & keep that somewhere safe off the phone (keep a copy on your external SD card as well).
Everything I've read so far suggests you're royally boned if you trash your EFS, so making a couple of copies & keeping them in various spots (one on the external SD/one on PC) makes sense to me. Hellcat's kTool does a bangup job & is a nice little app to have handy ;-)

Hi everyone. If someone can give me the confirmation about the following:
1. is Titanium backup saving the settings for the backed up app or only the app itself?
2. are social hub, readers hub, game hub, talk, IM, safe to freeze or unistall cos I don't use that?
3. When you freeze the app, is the icon gone or it stays under "menu"?
4. is Email app safe to freeze/uninstall or I need that for using Gmail app?
I'm on stock 2.3.3 + CF-Root-SGS2_XX_OXA_KH1-v4.1-CWM4 for now.
thank you and regards.

Thanks - very helpful to have more information.

3. Backup "LogProvider" for the call log. A lot of people think call logs are backed up by "contacts storage" but they're not.
This was really helpful. Thank you.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

How to transfer settings and profile to new Nexus 7

Want to transfer settings, profile and everything possible from old 8GB Nexus 7 to my new 16GB Nexus 7. Not rooted. Original OS. Not sure I ever backed anything up yet into cloud. Definitely have not backed up to my pc. Have AmazonData, Google Data and Dropbox Cloud. How to I back up everything possible. The apps I already bought I assume I just reinstall from Google Play store. Any way paid apps can be restored from any backup? Thanks

Titanium backup can restore your apps and app data, it might be able to restore some of your setting too. They should stay linked to the market.
You could move the backup files to online or just to your computer. As long as they go in the same directory in the new one, as they came out of the old one, titanium backup will be able to restore them.

Jon565G said:
Titanium backup can restore your apps and app data, it might be able to restore some of your setting too. They should stay linked to the market.
You could move the backup files to online or just to your computer. As long as they go in the same directory in the new one, as they came out of the old one, titanium backup will be able to restore them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, thanks. I did buy Titanium backup, but unfortunately I did not get super user or root my 8GB Nexus 7. Installing Titanium backup on my new 16 GB Nexus as well as getting superuser will be my first priority.
Your post did give me more confidence in using both my computer and using Google Cloud backup. When I checked my settings I saw that I had checked "back up my data" and automatic restore it, and also had my main Google email account set as the "back up account."
I will back up the 8 GB to both. However, I am still uncertain whether I can automatically restore my settings and profile and passwords from the 8GB Nexus back up onto my new 16 GB Nexus.

No worries mate, just glad I could help. Yeah, you did the right thing with the back up my data. It should restore at least some of your setting. (Not been able to test this feature yet, not got another N7 yet )
(Would love to use the online backup feature in TB, but upload on my internet is useless. Only get about 50kbps....)
Personally, I think it's best if it doesn't save passwords. I'm always suspicious about these type of things......
Definitely unlock and root first. You can always re lock and un root if you need to send it back for any reason. Besides, it's always nice to have a little more freedom. Just so you know, OTA Root Keeper will keep root if you do OTA updates, just learn how to use it first.
Good luck with transferring your setting over, can't see it taking long. It's always nice to use a new piece of tech anyway, no matter what your doing

[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?

[Question] How do you backup apps when moving to a new ROM/Phone?

I was wondering how you guys usually backup your phone when going from let's say stock to LineageOS? I was wondering this because I feel my way takes more time than it needs to and if there's a better method I'm glad to hear it.
I'll go first:
I backup first through Titanium backup which is a great app for restoring most data such as wifi passwords and app data for some apps. Secondly I'll make a backup using Helium because it backs up some apps that aren't compatible with TB's way of handling things such as Defenders III. Thirdly and most Important backup I make is through twrp in case I need to go back and get something I forgot or if "the **** hits the fan" on the new ROM.

j0nas_ said:
I was wondering how you guys usually backup your phone when going from let's say stock to LineageOS? I was wondering this because I feel my way takes more time than it needs to and if there's a better method I'm glad to hear it.
I'll go first:
I backup first through Titanium backup which is a great app for restoring most data such as wifi passwords and app data for some apps. Secondly I'll make a backup using Helium because it backs up some apps that aren't compatible with TB's way of handling things such as Defenders III. Thirdly and most Important backup I make is through twrp in case I need to go back and get something I forgot or if "the **** hits the fan" on the new ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use titanium backup pro or helium app

You might try to backup apps in titanium backup, secondly for photos and videos and all other stuff what I do is connect my phone to a PC and copy paste all folders displayed latter I can swap them pretty fast

I don't back up my apps. I don't have many apps installed so it doesn't really matter.
For data, I use adb.
Backup - adb pull /sdcard/
Restore - adb push <WHAT> /sdcard/<LOCATION>

I backup with TBU - never had any problems backing up or restoring.
But how do you get Helium to work for your Moto G4? I've tried several times/methods but it just doesn't work. I am rooted with InvictaOS and Helium gets stuck on checking SuperUser. When I cancel that out and try to connect via the computer it fails to recognize the G4, whether I'm on MTP or PTP.
The only reason I'm trying Helium is that I recently got a great deal on a Verizon E4 and want to play around with it. But since it's Verizon...no bootloader unlock. I'm going crazy trying to transfer my app data to the E4, which, ironically, is recognized by Helium.
I have never been a fan of iPhone, but they at least have a method to transfer app data to to a new phone, an area that Android is lacking. If i ever get another new phone that can't be rooted, I'm screwed if I want to keep my app data, such as from my Memo app, etc...
Sorry for rant/hi-jack.