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TWRP sayd system not mounted, then rebooted during restore, phone is softbricked

I was bootloader unlocked, latest TWRP installed, systemless root with SuperSU 2.6, cataclysm rom, ex kernel, layers, xposed. I had made a ton of backups and even kept some of them backed up in another locations. I needed to restore a backup in TWRP. At first it wouldn't let me, kept saying that phone system was mounted as read only.
this is my question #1 - How do you mount system for read in TWRP? I see there's an option called "mount," I go in there, i see settings I can select, but I don't see any option to "execute" or "apply" settings (like TWRP has on other screens - swipe to backup, swipe to restore, etc). There's no "clicke here to mount option." what do you do here?
#2 - it finally mounted rw, i think, but after picking my latest backup, it started and then when it got to 19% it reboot the phone. Phone is softbricked.
#3 - I'm very confused about all the checkboxes to restore, and all the checkboxes to wipe.
What should I be wiping and what should I be restoring? When making backups I checked all the boxes.
I had the galaxy nexus before and I knew that phone and clockworck mod inside out. TWRP is confusing and glitchy to me. I'm stuck and work with a phone without an OS and I'm starting to freak out, and don't have A to C cables with me.
Please explain where I went wrong here and how to do things correctly. I want to understand what I'm doing better, not just follow steps.

When you restored, with all the check boxes did you click "system image" for restore?
You should wipe then restore only system, data, and boot.

dontbeweakvato said:
When you restored, with all the check boxes did you click "system image" for restore?
You should wipe then restore only system, data, and boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I selected all the boxes, including system image I believe.
I did a wipe. I selected all the boxes. Went back into TWRP and now all my backups are gone. I said reboot, and TWRP said there's no OS installed. I think I deleted everything. I should not have wiped. I do have a backup saved on a computer, it's a folder with lots of .img files inside. How can I get that onto my phone with only having fastboot and TWRP modes available? I mean how can I place it on the phone in a way that TWRP would recognize it and restore from it.

I ended up just flashing the stock google image and that at least gave me a working phone back.

Yes. You beat me to it, that's what I was going to say. You have to reflash. Just remember for future references you only need to backup boot, system, and data( and efs etc). But Not "system image" that'll Bork your stuff up.

dontbeweakvato said:
Yes. You beat me to it, that's what I was going to say. You have to reflash. Just remember for future references you only need to backup boot, system, and data( and efs etc). But Not "system image" that'll Bork your stuff up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like to really understand this better. Do you know why system image borks the phone? Also, when you say efs etc., do you mean "absolutely everything except system image"? (I actually didn't see EFS listed there)

Well boot system and data. But you also need efs cause thats your imei. So just look around and familiarize with what youve found so far. Right now Im trying to flash 6.0.1 with a systemless root. Its kinda goin ridiculous right now because there aren't any directions or suggestions.

If you get to "no OS installed" restoring system image, then system will get you back
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

zgroten said:
If you get to "no OS installed" restoring system image, then system will get you back
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After it said no OS installed, I tried to restore system image from my TWRP backup, and the restore failed and the phone reboot itself at 19% restored. I had to ADB flash the factory system image from google. This brings me back to the original question.
Why was the restore in TWRP failing?

Did you mount system in TWRP before attempting to restore?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

mistermojorizin said:
After it said no OS installed, I tried to restore system image from my TWRP backup, and the restore failed and the phone reboot itself at 19% restored. I had to ADB flash the factory system image from google. This brings me back to the original question.
Why was the restore in TWRP failing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually in twrp you could of wiped, then restored boot, system , data and it would of restored everything

Flashed Android N OTA, Can i Restore Back Using TWRP Backup

Hii
I have flashed OTA zip of Android N Preview.
So my question is whether i can restore my TWRP Backup of Pure Nexus ROM to get back.
I have backed up the everything from TWRP like
Data
System
System Image
Boot
Vendor
Vendor Image.
So if its possible to restore using TWRP backup of Pure Nexus ROM that i took earlier .
what partitions do i need to restore to get back properly .
Do i need to restore
Boot , System & Data partitions to get back to Pure Nexus ROM or all partitions including System Image, Vendor image

Did you flag thru TWRP? of so did you flag modified boot IMG or kernel? To my knowledge that had to be done before rebooting into system.
To be able to restore TWRP. Also 3.0.0.0 is nor playing nice with new version so TWRP 3.0.0.1 has been released

StariX37 said:
Hii
I have flashed OTA zip of Android N Preview.
So my question is whether i can restore my TWRP Backup of Pure Nexus ROM to get back.
I have backed up the everything from TWRP like
Data
System
System Image
Boot
Vendor
Vendor Image.
So if its possible to restore using TWRP backup of Pure Nexus ROM that i took earlier .
what partitions do i need to restore to get back properly .
Do i need to restore
Boot , System & Data partitions to get back to Pure Nexus ROM or all partitions including System Image, Vendor image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to backup system image or vendor image, so don't worry about those in future, and definitely don't restore them. You should be fine with just restoring boot, system, data, and vendor.

Ok i flashed the Android N preview Manually using fastboot.after that flashed Modified Boot.img
flashed TWRP by Rom Racer v 3.0.0-1
Booted into twrp successfully without any problem & formatted Data Partition.
Used Android N preview for an hour or so and found that it cant be used as daily driver and also found that i couldnt live without Dt2w,s2s, xposed,root . So then reverted back to Dirty Unicorns ROM using TWRP backup that i made earlier.
So the process i followed to restore back :
Boot into TWRP
Wipe Dalvik, Data, System, Cache partitions.
flashed an older Vendor image zip of Android Marshmallow through TWRP
Restored the TWRP backup of Dirty Unicorn ROM.
And successfully reverted back to the ROM i was using earlier.

Duplicate partitions?

So I just updated TWRP (3.1.0-7 ), converted to F2FS, and flashed the latest build of PureNexus.
When booting into TWRP to perform a backup, there seem to be duplicate partitions (specifically System and Vendor), whereas before this was not the case. Although if I go to the Wipe option within TWRP, there are no duplicate partitions listed. Is this an issue within TWRP or by design? or have I jacked something up?
[x] = Selected by default
[x]Boot
[x]System
System Image
Vendor
Vendor Image
[x]Data (excl. storage)
Cache
Recovery
EFS

jacksheadache said:
So I just updated TWRP (3.1.0-7 ), converted to F2FS, and flashed the latest build of PureNexus.
When booting into TWRP to perform a backup, there seem to be duplicate partitions (specifically System and Vendor), whereas before this was not the case. Although if I go to the Wipe option within TWRP, there are no duplicate partitions listed. Is this an issue within TWRP or by design? or have I jacked something up?
[x] = Selected by default
[x]Boot
[x]System
System Image
Vendor
Vendor Image
[x]Data (excl. storage)
Cache
Recovery
EFS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's normal Bro. I think you misworded what you said. They aren't duplicates as one is the system and one is the image for the system and same for the vendor. I can't remember why that shows but maybe it is because f2fs works different than ext4 with partitions.

Thank you. Sorta kinda slightly almost assumed that was the cause, as I understand the system partition has a fallback (sure that's the technical term for it) So maybe it's the newer TWRP being more capable of showing these - as I do not remember seeing them on prior versions.

jacksheadache said:
So I just updated TWRP (3.1.0-7 ), converted to F2FS, and flashed the latest build of PureNexus.
When booting into TWRP to perform a backup, there seem to be duplicate partitions (specifically System and Vendor), whereas before this was not the case. Although if I go to the Wipe option within TWRP, there are no duplicate partitions listed. Is this an issue within TWRP or by design? or have I jacked something up?
[x] = Selected by default
[x]Boot
[x]System
System Image
Vendor
Vendor Image
[x]Data (excl. storage)
Cache
Recovery
EFS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those have always been in TWRP for both 2015 Nexus devices.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

SlimSnoopOS said:
Those have always been in TWRP for both 2015 Nexus devices.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're wrong. Or I'm seeing things. More likely I'm seeing things.
Thank you

jacksheadache said:
You're wrong. Or I'm seeing things. More likely I'm seeing things.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are seeing things. The images have been there for years.

jacksheadache said:
You're wrong. Or I'm seeing things. More likely I'm seeing things.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, i think those are here since Nexus 6P release. Anyway, if you want a "proper" explanation of the difference between system/system image, here it is:
https://twrp.me/faq/whattobackup.html
Cheers...

TWRP 3.1.1-0 - help me understand what to backup please

Hi,
after few soft-bricks and hours, i was able to transform my stock A2017 B16 to stock A2017U B25 and everything is working.
now the device is B25, android 7.1.1 + TWRP 3.1.1-0 and i want to make full backup as i know the need it if something goes wrong (and it probably will )
in the back up options i see the following:
Boot (64MB)
Recovery (64MB)
System (4740MB)
System Image (6144MB)
Data (excl. storage) (4001MB)
Cach (27MB)
Modem (NON-HLOS) (95MB)
Bluetooth (BTFM) (1MB)
EFS (6MB)
for now, i did backup of all of them but didn't tried to restore because i saw somewhere that i can get you brick .
can you help me understand what to backup for *complete backup* which one i can use in emergency recovery cases?

Boot - This is your bootloader. I usually back this up.
Recovery - This is twrp, you could back it up by itself once, but it isn't necessary.
System - This is your rom and stuff. This is the main thing to backup/restore if you want to keep the current ROM you are on.
System Image - I'm not positive on this, but I think its a full image of the whole system with everything.
Data (excl. storage) (4001MB) - This is all of your personal data, apps settings, call logs, etc.
Cach - no point in backing this up
Modem (NON-HLOS) - I don't back this up either as you can always flash the newest modem files
Bluetooth (BTFM) - bluetooth settings/devices I think, probably don't need to back up.
EFS - Do one backup of this and keep it forever. If you ever wipe or mess the EFS up you are in trouble.
Don't count on all that 100% as I'm not a dev, but I've been doing this for years. Besides the one time backups I mentioned, I routinely just backup the boot, system and data and have never had any problems restoring.
If you are brave and installing a rom that runs on a similar base, sometimes you can backup only the data, and flash the new rom, then restore just the data and have all your settings and apps stuff back.
Hopefully that helps.

Boot, System, Data- just like the person above me.
That's all you really need to do. Sometimes I'll even do things like wipe system only if I'm having problems with the ROM, Gapps, or some random mod, and reinstall the ROM & Gapps to bring it back to a clean slate. Say, if I tried out A.R.I.S.E. sound mod but it was acting goofy and I wanted to make sure I removed all of its remnants.
Recovery is unnecessary I'd think.
EFS - I guess backup once.

Why not backup everything? It doesn't take up much space. System image seems to be the only one I'd leave out. I still back it up anyway.

ThePublisher said:
Boot - This is your bootloader. I usually back this up.
Recovery - This is twrp, you could back it up by itself once, but it isn't necessary.
System - This is your rom and stuff. This is the main thing to backup/restore if you want to keep the current ROM you are on.
System Image - I'm not positive on this, but I think its a full image of the whole system with everything.
Data (excl. storage) (4001MB) - This is all of your personal data, apps settings, call logs, etc.
Cach - no point in backing this up
Modem (NON-HLOS) - I don't back this up either as you can always flash the newest modem files
Bluetooth (BTFM) - bluetooth settings/devices I think, probably don't need to back up.
EFS - Do one backup of this and keep it forever. If you ever wipe or mess the EFS up you are in trouble.
Don't count on all that 100% as I'm not a dev, but I've been doing this for years. Besides the one time backups I mentioned, I routinely just backup the boot, system and data and have never had any problems restoring.
If you are brave and installing a rom that runs on a similar base, sometimes you can backup only the data, and flash the new rom, then restore just the data and have all your settings and apps stuff back.
Hopefully that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're mostly correct except boot, which is the kernel and not the bootloader, and system image is this as mention in an old TWRP changelog:
The Team Win Recovery Project has released version 2.8.7.0 of its custom recovery, known simply as TWRP. This update brings a system read-only option that's intended to help you make a pure backup of your system image that you can later flash to receive over-the-air updates after having rooted or ROMed your device.
Cheers.
@mb0 Basic backup is system data and boot to have a working device, but I'd backup everything at least once just to be on the safe side.

The "backup all" solution sound nice to me??
At least one full backup and i keep it in safe place(es).
Let's try the restore function and hope not to be surprised

Hehe, good luck mate!

I'm back to update...
Full backup (except 'cache') --> reboot to recovery --> normal 'wipe' --> reboot (to make sure that it wiped) --> reboot to recovery --> restore everything (except 'cache') -->reboot --> ITS ALL GOOD :good:

Pixel 4 (nandroid)

So since there in no TWRP for the pixel 4 currently is there anyway too make a nandroid backup?
If I remember correctly this is where the entire partition(s) is/are backed up like as in a snapshot was taken of the way every little minute detail about it was arranged. Since TWRP does this backing up for us and it's not available how can we back up our phones in this type of detail? Titanium does a decent job but it's not an actual exact duplicate of the way things were at a certain point in time on the partition like a nandroid is. Basically, if someone flashes a ROM (one not requiring TWRP to flash, namely pixeldust, I believe it has a patched boot partition allowing unsigned files to be flashed w/ stock recovery) and something hangs it up for whatever reason there needs to be a nandroid backup to revert to if the flash goes to hell in a hand basket, right?
Is there a way to make an old skool nandroid like TWRP makes?

One could ADB pull partition copies to make backups of partitions but how this would turn out with the android 10 "dynamic partitions" is still beyond my understanding.