Database Users

[Q] Failed recovery of nandroid backup - why???

Hi all,
Some time ago i asked, and received, some support on these forums on how to properly carry out a nandroid backup... following the sound advice i got, i carried out my backup (using TWRP for the record, with all the options checked), and stored it away for a rainy day... said day came yesterday, when i messed up my system and rendered it instable (i tried to manually delete the dalvik cache directory in order to free up the 2,5GB of space it was taking)... since i knew there was i high chance of this ending in disaster, the last thing i did before the delete was carry out another nandroid, so i could easily return to where i had left off... how wrong i turned out to be
as soon as i the system became instable following my experiment of deleting the d. cache directory, i recovered the latest nandroid (i.e. the one i had made just hours before) and everything seemd to go smoothely until the first reboot... when the following happened:
- first reboot after recovery took ages, much like the first reboot following the flashing of a new rom... not the end of the world, but that was the first sign that all was not well
- the status bar disappeared, and there was no way of making it come back (i.e. nothing to do with the launcher, i typically use apex but i i tried switching to both nova and touchwiz which i also kept up to date but the stats bar was nowhere to be seen)
- even if not having a status bar with all the info on it is acceptable (which of course it isn't, but lets just say), the sytem became completely instable after 5minutes of operation... with each app taking turns to shutting down until i kept getting the message "system UI has closed" over and over, to the point that doing a reboot was challenging since i barely had the time to press on the screen between instances of this bloody error message appearing...
...i did of course try and return to my older nandroid backup, but... lo and behold... exactly same behaviour...
so now i have resorted to formatting the internal memory card and flashing a new rom and basically starting over... just what i hope the nandroid would spare me basically :/
question is: does this sort of error sound familiar to anyone? can someone give me a tip maybe on what i may have done wrong?
any opinion, tips& advice much appreciated

I have the exact same problem. It happens on TW Lollipop ROMs. Haven't found a fix. I'm using Philz Touch Recovery and the old no knox bootloader.

Anyone? I have researched this but cannot find any similar problems reported... it can't just be me and pavelcheto...

Maybe it a recovery fault. Faulty backup or faulty restore.

No problems with my older backups. I restored my KitKat TW backup, working fine. Restoring CM12 backups also works fine. I've looked for a new recovery, Philz is discontinued, CWM hasn't been updated for a year and I really don't like TWRP.

I use TWRP 2.8.3.0 and never have (and hopefully never will) encountered any issues with restoring backups.

Considering i recovered 2 separate backups for a total of 3 times (i tried recovering the first backup twice) i doubt the issue was with the recovery itself... however since pavelcheto had no issues with the kk recovery maybe it could be lollipop related?
Anyone successfully recovered a lollipop nandroid backup?

platypus78 said:
Considering i recovered 2 separate backups for a total of 3 times (i tried recovering the first backup twice) i doubt the issue was with the recovery itself... however since pavelcheto had no issues with the kk recovery maybe it could be lollipop related?
Anyone successfully recovered a lollipop nandroid backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recovered my lollipop gpe backup a couple of times without a problem.
Data encryption may cause restoring problems.

I have restored CM12 backups (based on 5.0.2) serveral times, no problem there. I've had issues only with TouchWiz Lollipop ROMs, I have tried different custom roms, all get bugged at restore.

pavelcheto said:
I have tried different custom roms, all get bugged at restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to make sure I understand correctly : you mean all TW custom roms you've restored have had problems?
Wonder if anyone else has managed a bug-free restore of a 5.x TW?

Yes, but only on Lollipop. KitKat TW roms restore just fine. I am using Philz Touch Recovery. I have tried 3 different TW Lollipop roms and they all fail to restore properly. No wallpaper, black wallpaper and no status bar. And after a minute or two System UI starts crashing. If then I do factory reset from recovery and the rom starts normally (welcome guide and stuff) and works fine.

bumping this thread because i cant seem to find a solution for this anywhere.

TheAwesomeBit said:
bumping this thread because i cant seem to find a solution for this anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no solution for this as per comments above. TW LP is not restorable. You can flash a new lollipop ROM tho'
Sent from my GT-I9505

Phone restarts at startup.

Well this is my 1st post so first of all hey everyone
I just spent a week in Amsterdam and my phone restarted twice, different times different days and I dont remember what I was doing with it back then.
But as I landed back home I put the phone back from "Airplane Mode" and went on to toggle "Cellular Data" on.
The second I pressed the cellular data shortcut on my the phone restarted itself but this time whenever it would finish the screen would be on but fully black and sometimes it'll show battery precentage at the top but then will restart again in an infinite loop.
Sometimes it'll pop up the "Optimizing Apps" window and will go through all 24, upon finishing it will restart once more and do the same.
I tried using the bootloader and it worked (the bootloader that is) but the phone would do the same thing even after Rebooting from there or shutting down from there and then turning back on.
I contacted tech support on chat but they couldnt help past telling me to go to bootloader and reboot, said I should factory wipe when it failed.
Also tried wiping cache but to no avail.
I have no backup of my phone (wanted to do one before the flight but got lazy and I suck for not doing one sooner) since probably October and google doesnt backup my contacts properly for some unknown reason.
I already downloaded Android Studio with everything included for me to try using adb to sideload stock without wiping but its my first time and I couldnt get it to do anything at all...
I already got the official stock .gz file from the motorola website.
Anyway here are the specs to my phone:
XT1575
Everything is stock. didn't root or change recovery once in my life.
Was fully updated and had plenty of drive space (I have almost 128GB with the 64GB version + 64GB SD)
I'm really lost here so help will be very appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
-Noam

Start with a full wipe and if that doesn't work flash the stock image. Not sure what your question is though as you never really say. Once fixed I would unlock and make a backup so you don't have to deal with this again.

lafester said:
Start with a full wipe and if that doesn't work flash the stock image. Not sure what your question is though as you never really say. Once fixed I would unlock and make a backup so you don't have to deal with this again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing I pretty much want to know is if theres a way to either backup the phone now with it connected to the computer while in bootloader or recovery. or a way to flash the stock rom without wiping which I read someone did with his tablet. I cant post source normally because I'm a new user so here it is but change spaces to dots: schnouki net/posts/2014/08/13/flashing-a-stock-android-image-without-wiping-user-data/
Also while in recovery I noticed 2 options under wipe: 1. userdata only. 2. userdata+(insert something I dont remember here) and I was wondering what gets deleted in both? if I delete only userdata what data will remain? something helpful?

Sure you can try flashing without wiping data but being locked I personally wouldn't risk it. No idea about backing up in your state... somewhere I remember a thread on backing up without root try searching in q&a.

lafester said:
Sure you can try flashing without wiping data but being locked I personally wouldn't risk it. No idea about backing up in your state... somewhere I remember a thread on backing up without root try searching in q&a.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity why shouldnt I try flashing with no wipe if ill lose the data anyway? worst case wont I just have to wipe after it fails and flash again?
And I will try thank you
Do you have any knowledge about the 2 wipe options?
Thanks in advance

Well I tried turning the phone on and it took a couple of minutes before loading to a fresh start. It apparently wiped itself on its own. Managed to restore almost everything.
Anyhow the phone takes too long to boot now. Was even stuck at boot and I had to restart it.
Anyway to fix my software? Or at least check for corruption?
Sent from my XT1575 using XDA-Developers mobile app

WiFi won't turn on after Nandroid

So this started on Saturday. Motorola has been nagging me all week to update to Nougat and I have declined due to lack of XPosed compatibility. On Saturday, I turned my phone on only to see the update in progress. Don't know how they did that unless I unconsciously touched confirm with my butt at some point.
I have a Nandroid backup so I thought the solution would be simple -- restore the backup and get on with my life. After restoring the backup, the WiFi no longer works. On the searching for networks screen it appears to be on. But on the "more setting" screen, it is off and will not turn on.
I had this problem once before and reflashing the modem fixed it. I've flashed it three times now and it is still not fixed. What else might be the problem? Thanks!

pjcamp said:
So this started on Saturday. Motorola has been nagging me all week to update to Nougat and I have declined due to lack of XPosed compatibility. On Saturday, I turned my phone on only to see the update in progress. Don't know how they did that unless I unconsciously touched confirm with my butt at some point.
I have a Nandroid backup so I thought the solution would be simple -- restore the backup and get on with my life. After restoring the backup, the WiFi no longer works. On the searching for networks screen it appears to be on. But on the "more setting" screen, it is off and will not turn on.
I had this problem once before and reflashing the modem fixed it. I've flashed it three times now and it is still not fixed. What else might be the problem? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, unless you signed a non-disclosure as part of MFN, you didn't get Nougat update (probably), it was just a security update... odd that it would even take since you have root and Xposed (and maybe TWRP) it would be impossible to apply to the update. Aside from that, IF you did get an update applied, then restored a Nandroid that means your boot image (kernel) and radio versions are out of sync... You need to either flash the modem package that matches your kernel or restore the nandroid you did before the restore.

acejavelin said:
First off, unless you signed a non-disclosure as part of MFN, you didn't get Nougat update (probably), it was just a security update... odd that it would even take since you have root and Xposed (and maybe TWRP) it would be impossible to apply to the update. Aside from that, IF you did get an update applied, then restored a Nandroid that means your boot image (kernel) and radio versions are out of sync... You need to either flash the modem package that matches your kernel or restore the nandroid you did before the restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you're right.
The immediate reason for doing the Nandroid restore is because the update got my phone stuck in a boot loop. After the restore, it started pestering me to update again so I took the opportunity to look into it a little more closely and it is a security update, not Android N.
But that then raises another question, or two actually. I was under the impression that the Nandroid backup stored the entire contents of memory. Are there some bits, like the wifi modem, that aren't included? Also, if I unroot long enough to take the update, will that restore the wifi modem? I assume an update would check the integrity of system files.
Thanks for the quick reply. I don't come to xda often but it is always informative.

pjcamp said:
So you're right.
The immediate reason for doing the Nandroid restore is because the update got my phone stuck in a boot loop. After the restore, it started pestering me to update again so I took the opportunity to look into it a little more closely and it is a security update, not Android N.
But that then raises another question, or two actually. I was under the impression that the Nandroid backup stored the entire contents of memory. Are there some bits, like the wifi modem, that aren't included? Also, if I unroot long enough to take the update, will that restore the wifi modem? I assume an update would check the integrity of system files.
Thanks for the quick reply. I don't come to xda often but it is always informative.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A Nandroid doesn't include lots of stuff... It is 5 or so of 25-30 partitions, typical system, boot, data, cache, and sometimes recovery and a couple others, it doesn't include radios, persistent data (like IMEI or serial numbers), internal storage, bootloader, and lots of other stuff.
You cannot just "unroot" and take an OTA, for modern Moto devices your boot image and system partitions must be pure and untouched (the script can even tell if system was ever mounted r/w even if nothing has been changed) and you must have stock recovery. You must return to stock to take an OTA, there are several threads discussing ways to do it here.

[Bootloop] Stuck after restoring TWRP Backup - systemic failure or missing something?

Hi there,
I have two D5503's , one main one with PWR_BTN broken and with ROOT and one where the button works but the vibration is way too loud and never been ROOTED.
Anyway, after playing around trying to get rid of KingRoot and go to SuperSU it didn't work so I made a TWRP Backup of all internal partitions.
For some reason the phone didn't want to boot from one moment to the other and just went from "Sony Xperia Screen" to "Powered by Android Screen" and then rebooted.
No worries I thought, I got a backup. Then wiped everything and used TWRP to recover the previously made backup. After Restore was done - same behaviour.
So I thought - oh well, what the heck. Try a new ROM from XDA. That's what I did, flashing "[email protected][email protected]" from here in the forum.
Then I downloaded the most important apps and configured them, running a backup afterwards with the thought "if anything goes wrong I can still go back to this fresh image where SuperSU works fine and all the cr*p from the past years of using the phone and not wanting to "re-initiate" my phone. So just for kicks and wiped it again and then restored the freshly made backup. :crying: boohoo, same bootloop again.
To make it short: Is it me doing something wrong or what is going on?
Thanks for your time reading this and your input. :good:
Greetz
James

Hi Mods and Admins, I just found out I posted this in the wrong forum.
Can you please move it to here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/sony-xperia-z1-compact/help
Thanks!

Weird bootloop

Have had my OnePlus 2 since 2015, and it's been a solid performer up to today.
I had the crDroid ROM (8.1) installed, along with Magisk, and it's been working fine for over a month with zero issues.
Today, I went to remove an app that was being troublesome, and then rebooted. And it just bootlooped. Animation is playing, but that's it. It sits there for 10-15 mins doing nothing. I hold the Power button to shut it down, and then try booting again. Same thing, just a straight bootloop for 15 mins. So I reboot to recovery (TWRP 3.2.1.0) and flash the Magisk uninstaller, to see if restoring the stock boot partition would help. It didn't, and just gave the same bootloop. So I go back into TWRP, wipe /system /cache and /dalvik and reinstall the ROM and gapps. Reboot. Same bootloop.
Now I'm starting to get a little concerned. Right now I'm restoring a backup from 10 days ago that I made before I last updated the ROM, but assuming this fails, does anyone have any good ideas? I'm not an expert, but I'm not a novice either, and this isn't making much sense. Unless my OnePlus 2 is getting ready to check out, which would suck...

idk if you had any mods like kernel or whatever or what app you removed (and if it had root acces) but first make sure you are on latest twrp, then try to clean flash a rom like normal. try to boot it it should work.

Thanks for the reply. No mods, other than Magisk. Just a stock 8.1 ROM with Magisk on top. Wiping /system, /cache and reflashing the ROM did not work. In the end, restoring a backup from a week ago was the only thing that worked. I have no idea why or what happened, but I guess it's yet another reason to keep a good backup on your phone in case of situations like this.

Gaffadin said:
Thanks for the reply. No mods, other than Magisk. Just a stock 8.1 ROM with Magisk on top. Wiping /system, /cache and reflashing the ROM did not work. In the end, restoring a backup from a week ago was the only thing that worked. I have no idea why or what happened, but I guess it's yet another reason to keep a good backup on your phone in case of situations like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This means that a date/time overflow occurred in your system
You restored a backup from 10 days ago, I'm assuming an older version of the ROM? So the newer version has an overflow bug
Even if nothing changes on the system your system time is always changing and if the ROM or kernel is somehow messed up then this value can cause an overflow and if a security module of some sort (like fortify_source or stack_buffer_protection) finds out about the overflow it can prevent boot from happening
Note: below example not completely valid in the real world, I've removed some stuff and is just for clear understanding.
Let's elaborate, "signed int" accepts values from -32768 to +32768 (0 inclusive)
What do you think happens when a value below -32768 is passed? That's an underflow and it's not defined what would happen below that limit (actually stuff does happen but see below notice)
If you pass a value over 32768 you cause an overflow
Note: I'm not going to go into details about what exactly happens. This would add too much information and cause more confusion than it would clear
What does this have to do with the date? Well every second your system date increases and if you got one of these limits you're going to run into problems
This is the only possible explanation for what could have happened

Thanks for the explanation. i think I understood most of it.
The backup from 10 days ago was from an older version of the ROM, though I have since installed the latest ROM version on top of the restored backup without issue, as I did when I first made the backup.