Database Users

Multi-user support on N7 with ROMs

I have a 32GB N7 that I share with my girlfriend. I quickly learned that if I flash a new ROM, that whole other user's info is gone.
After trying to restore apps and info using both Titanium and ROM Toolbox, I couldn't get it to function like it was before.
I tried to restore to a backup I made prior to doing this and it won't get past the boot screen. I can safely assume that whole other user account is gone. The question is, how can I bring that from one ROM to another? Or how can I restore back to a previous ROM that had it setup?

engagedtosmile said:
I have a 32GB N7 that I share with my girlfriend. I quickly learned that if I flash a new ROM, that whole other user's info is gone.
After trying to restore apps and info using both Titanium and ROM Toolbox, I couldn't get it to function like it was before.
I tried to restore to a backup I made prior to doing this and it won't get past the boot screen. I can safely assume that whole other user account is gone. The question is, how can I bring that from one ROM to another? Or how can I restore back to a previous ROM that had it setup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could be wrong about this as I am very new to serious mucking around in Android but...
Were ROMs you were using previously based on 4.1.x or older? I know that it is only a very recent version of Android that has proper multi-user support (4.2.2 has it for instance.. I'm not sure about 4.2.1 etc..) and thus now places a "0" folder in which the main user's data is saved, and then there will be "10', "11" etc.. for subsequent users. I'm not sure if your data is gone or not depending on your exact situation, but there are issues that can come from trying to get recovery/data from "pre-MultiUser" and "post-MultiUser" ROMs. Sometimes you may be able to manually move or stipulate where you want to recover from etc... others, it may be gone. There was a post about this from TeamWin and their TeamWinRecoveryProject that explains a bit more of it... http://teamw.in/DataMedia
Not sure if this is helpful, but it is worthwhile to look into regarding multi-user Android.

I am having same problem as OP. I share the N7 with my wife and when I flashed ROM I wasnt able to restore any of her data through Titanium, but it would let me restore everything that was on my main user account. Had to switch back to stock rom nandroid, and her data was still gone and mine was all intact. Now she won't let me put a custom rom on If anyone has any suggestions/fixes I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

ProbyWaN said:
I am having same problem as OP. I share the N7 with my wife and when I flashed ROM I wasnt able to restore any of her data through Titanium, but it would let me restore everything that was on my main user account. Had to switch back to stock rom nandroid, and her data was still gone and mine was all intact. Now she won't let me put a custom rom on If anyone has any suggestions/fixes I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably had to have titanium on both accounts, then created the account after ROM flash and titanium restore on both accounts sperately
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Backing Up Multi Users

Hello. Has anyone found a way to do this yet? I found a couple threads that dated a couple months ago with the same question but no answer. So if anyone has figured out a way to backup the apps and data on both a primary and secondary user account please help. Im pretty sure others are interested as well. I really want to try out some different roms but my brother will be really mad if I lose all his data again . Last time i backed the tablet up with wugfreshs toolkit thinking itd back up everything and when i found out it didnt after restoring i was screwed lol. Is there a way to pick what you want to restore with twrp? I know for my phone in cwm you can do an advanced restore and restore just certain things like apps and data. Is that possible for nexus 10?

I have the same problem kind of.
Have not tested but if you make nandroid backup in twrp on at least the data partition you should get all user data in the backup, right?
I however would like to make selected app backup in titanium where i could choose to include data for all or just single user. Not sure if possible.
Skickat från min GT-P3110 via Tapatalk 2

Johan1976 said:
I have the same problem kind of.
Have not tested but if you make nandroid backup in twrp on at least the data partition you should get all user data in the backup, right?
I however would like to make selected app backup in titanium where i could choose to include data for all or just single user. Not sure if possible.
Skickat från min GT-P3110 via Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes with tarp it backs up all user data. But like you I also want to backup certain apps with titanium. I hope they add this feature soon because I like changing Roms to see my favorite. I'm about to flash paranoid android and I did a full backup first. If my bro gets mad I'll just restore the backup so he can have his stuff back
Sent from my Nexus 10 using xda app-developers app

Well i tried installing paranoid android. Then booted fine then i restored data via twrp and it wont boot i guess that doesnt work. Any other suggestions fir backing up multi accounts?
Sent from my LG-P970g

If anyone is interested go into super su and enable multiusers so now you have root on all accounts then just back up apps on each account with titanium backup and move then to pc (just in case) then you can flash any rom you want and restore the apps. Hurray . Its not as smooth as id like becaise wiping data wipes new accounts so you have to readd them but just back up all pics to google plus and anything else to cpu. Your apps and data from titanium backup will be backed up and now you have everything saved. So if anyone needs this it works. Took me a while to finally figure out a way with lots of nandroid restoring but now i.got it
Time to flash some roms till i find a favorite
As u can see im very happy
Sent from my LG-P970g

Johan1976 said:
I have the same problem kind of.
Have not tested but if you make nandroid backup in twrp on at least the data partition you should get all user data in the backup, right?
I however would like to make selected app backup in titanium where i could choose to include data for all or just single user. Not sure if possible.
Skickat från min GT-P3110 via Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found a solution that should help.look at my previous post
Sent from my LG-P970g

abdel12345 said:
If anyone is interested go into super su and enable multiusers so now you have root on all accounts then just back up apps on each account with titanium backup and move then to pc (just in case) then you can flash any rom you want and restore the apps. Hurray . Its not as smooth as id like becaise wiping data wipes new accounts so you have to readd them but just back up all pics to google plus and anything else to cpu. Your apps and data from titanium backup will be backed up and now you have everything saved. So if anyone needs this it works. Took me a while to finally figure out a way with lots of nandroid restoring but now i.got it
Time to flash some roms till i find a favorite
As u can see im very happy
Sent from my LG-P970g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am trying to do the same as you! The way you described doing it, I think you are just using Titanium backup app and not nandroid backups in the end, is that right? So you used Titanium backup all your apps and their data (but not photos/other documents/files on your tablet), and then you flashed your new custom ROM and used Titanium again to restore all apps/data in each user account separately? Sounds straightforward if I have this right! I have not done this before, so want to understand it before I do!! Thanks for your help... :good:

glastolover27 said:
I am trying to do the same as you! The way you described doing it, I think you are just using Titanium backup app and not nandroid backups in the end, is that right? So you used Titanium backup all your apps and their data (but not photos/other documents/files on your tablet), and then you flashed your new custom ROM and used Titanium again to restore all apps/data in each user account separately? Sounds straightforward if I have this right! I have not done this before, so want to understand it before I do!! Thanks for your help... :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's kind of annoying but it works. You have to back up the apps in each account then move it to a computer then back up the next account and move it to computer then back up the next etc... You have to do this because it erases the secondary accounts when flashing a new ROM so you lose all the backups you made. So putting it on a CPU then moving it back after the flash will make sure you have them
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

abdel12345 said:
It's kind of annoying but it works. You have to back up the apps in each account then move it to a computer then back up the next account and move it to computer then back up the next etc... You have to do this because it erases the secondary accounts when flashing a new ROM so you lose all the backups you made. So putting it on a CPU then moving it back after the flash will make sure you have them
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, thanks, sounds like I had described the right technique... will give it a try!

Going back to stock: restoring apps without root

Hello there!
I rooted my Nexus 6P, as I've done with every Android I've owned since my Nexus One, as soon as it arrived.
However, I really like NFC payments (we don't have Google Pay in Spain, but there are several banks that offer that option) and when the January security update came out, I un-rooted flashing everything.
After that, two of the bank apps worked, but one of them still refuses to do so.
In addition, I've been suffering from very, very, disappointing battery life: no more than 2 hours SOT and having to recharge twice a day.
So, I've decided to start from scratch, using the latest image that came out today.
But I have several questions and I'd be very grateful if somebody could answer them:
- First, and most important. I've been using Titanium Backup since the dawn of times in order to preserve my settings. I've a couple hundreds apps installed and making each of them behave as I like is a nightmare. Is there any rootless backup solution? I know Google backs up everything, but I don't know if every setting will be restored as I want.
- Second... actually there are no more questions, I can look for how-tos on how to flash the image, go back to default recovery...
Thanks in advance.

reycat said:
Hello there!
I rooted my Nexus 6P, as I've done with every Android I've owned since my Nexus One, as soon as it arrived.
However, I really like NFC payments (we don't have Google Pay in Spain, but there are several banks that offer that option) and when the January security update came out, I un-rooted flashing everything.
After that, two of the bank apps worked, but one of them still refuses to do so.
In addition, I've been suffering from very, very, disappointing battery life: no more than 2 hours SOT and having to recharge twice a day.
So, I've decided to start from scratch, using the latest image that came out today.
But I have several questions and I'd be very grateful if somebody could answer them:
- First, and most important. I've been using Titanium Backup since the dawn of times in order to preserve my settings. I've a couple hundreds apps installed and making each of them behave as I like is a nightmare. Is there any rootless backup solution? I know Google backs up everything, but I don't know if every setting will be restored as I want.
- Second... actually there are no more questions, I can look for how-tos on how to flash the image, go back to default recovery...
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In titanium backup you can have it export your backup to an update.zip that you can install via twrp. Having twrp as your recovery does not break Android Pay, as does root, xposed, etc..
edit: yes this applies to now, after google made changes to the server side that broke the root work-around

reycat said:
- First, and most important. I've been using Titanium Backup since the dawn of times in order to preserve my settings. I've a couple hundreds apps installed and making each of them behave as I like is a nightmare. Is there any rootless backup solution? I know Google backs up everything, but I don't know if every setting will be restored as I want.
- Second... actually there are no more questions, I can look for how-tos on how to flash the image, go back to default recovery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been restoring what I can from my Google account for three phones now and, while it's best it's been on a Nexus, you still won't get app settings and full data restored, so Titanium is needed for that. I've never tested the zip export the first reply suggested, but that's an interesting idea. As for getting back to a stock install, there's a very handy guide at http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/guides-how-to-guides-beginners-t3206928 and it covers all scenarios thoroughly. The command line is really the fastest and easiest, as the guide includes code you can just copy and paste. I don't think it's been updated regarding root, because systemless as a way to preserve AP was just stopped by Google.

Barsky said:
In titanium backup you can have it export your backup to an update.zip that you can install via twrp. Having twrp as your recovery does not break Android Pay, as does root, xposed, etc..
edit: yes this applies to now, after google made changes to the server side that broke the root work-around
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have once tested the update option but what I got is only apps and not data. I'm pretty sure I chose app+data while doing the update zip.. Beware of such things happening.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Thanks a lot for your answers.
I've been reading and it seems that, without root, TiBa's update.zip file won't restore app data.
There seems to be another app, Helium, that does a neat trick. You have to connect your phone to your PC, and Helium talks to the PC so that it uses adb to create or restore the backup. No root needed. I think I'm going to take my chances with that.
ultyrunner, that's the guide I was planning on using in order to go back to stock... thanks again, you saved me the search

scrambled PIN now locked out. Help please.

Hi guys.
i'm new here and greatly appreciate the knowledge here. I recently installed purenexus on my 6p. first time installing a custom rom. worked beautifully until i decided to try out the lockscreen scramble pin feature. Now when I try to unlock my phone it doesn't recognize my PIN. i've tried many times and something undoubtedly went wrong. is this a known issue with scrambling your pin?
So what should i do? A quick google search suggested I restore a backup. Is this the recommended method? I did a factory back up, i think. i did the back up after the factory reset but before flashing purenexus. i used the default twrp back up settings, which i believe did not include the vendor file.
i'm a complete novice when it comes to this sort of thing so if someone can give me a step-by-step explanation for me to unscrew myself here i'd greatly appreciate it.
thanks.

ent3rpryze said:
Hi guys.
i'm new here and greatly appreciate the knowledge here. I recently installed purenexus on my 6p. first time installing a custom rom. worked beautifully until i decided to try out the lockscreen scramble pin feature. Now when I try to unlock my phone it doesn't recognize my PIN. i've tried many times and something undoubtedly went wrong. is this a known issue with scrambling your pin?
So what should i do? A quick google search suggested I restore a backup. Is this the recommended method? I did a factory back up, i think. i did the back up after the factory reset but before flashing purenexus. i used the default twrp back up settings, which i believe did not include the vendor file.
i'm a complete novice when it comes to this sort of thing so if someone can give me a step-by-step explanation for me to unscrew myself here i'd greatly appreciate it.
thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure you're hitting the right numbers? They'll be in a different position every time.

Heisenberg said:
Are you sure you're hitting the right numbers? They'll be in a different position every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am. 100% certain.
it really seems as if my password was for some reason changed. before someone asks i am definitely using the correct pin. its the same PIN i've been using for years.
how do i regain control of my phone?

ent3rpryze said:
I am. 100% certain.
it really seems as if my password was for some reason changed. before someone asks i am definitely using the correct pin. its the same PIN i've been using for years.
how do i regain control of my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i rebooted to recovery mode and i discovered that i moved my backup to my laptop. so now backup file is available.
can i just wipe my phone and reinstall the purenexus rom which is still on my phone

ent3rpryze said:
i rebooted to recovery mode and i discovered that i moved my backup to my laptop. so now backup file is available.
can i just wipe my phone and reinstall the purenexus rom which is still on my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, if you clean flash the ROM you'll be able to get back into it. Had you restored a nandroid backup recently by any chance?

Heisenberg said:
Yes, if you clean flash the ROM you'll be able to get back into it. Had you restored a nandroid backup recently by any chance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks a lot for clarifying that. i guess i have no other option.
has this been known to happen? scrambling PIN causing the pin to change.
I dont have a recent nandroid backup because my purenexus flash is only days old. is there a way to automate nandroid backups? is it wiser to keep the backups on the phone?

ent3rpryze said:
thanks a lot for clarifying that. i guess i have no other option.
has this been known to happen? scrambling PIN causing the pin to change.
I dont have a recent nandroid backup because my purenexus flash is only days old. is there a way to automate nandroid backups? is it wiser to keep the backups on the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never seen this happen before. I'm pretty sure you can use Tasker to automate backups. I usually advise people to keep at least one backup or ROM zip on their phone, just in case.

IT HAPPENED AGAIN!
Per the ever hepful Heisenberg's recommendation, I wiped my phone and reflashed purenexus. This was yesterday. Everything went smoothly. Recreated my security PIN. Was able to unlock my phone with it without incident...until just now. Incorrect PIN error 3 times.
What is going on?!?!
It should be noted that both times this has happened has come after I turned my phone off. This time I happened to be charging my phone while it was off. I can't recall if it was the same case the first time it happened. Is this a purenexus issue?

found the solution.
"Delete this file /data/system/locksettings.db from TWRP."
I wish I had known this the first time it happened. Oh well. I sure hope this helps someone else in the future.

ent3rpryze said:
found the solution.
"Delete this file /data/system/locksettings.db from TWRP."
I wish I had known this the first time it happened. Oh well. I sure hope this helps someone else in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is usually over necessary after a user has created (and later restored) a nandroid backup without removing lockscreen security first. Are you saying you hadn't done this at all prior to the problem occurring?

Heisenberg said:
This is usually over necessary after a user has created (and later restored) a nandroid backup without removing lockscreen security first. Are you saying you hadn't done this at all prior to the problem occurring?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont know what qualifies as a nandroid backup. the only backup i created was with the TWRP backup function which i later moved to my laptop, as previously mentioned. and yes, i did that before the problem occured. it was before I had even installed pure nexus.
btw, it happened AGAIN (#3 for those keeping score). i'm going to assume there's a bug in the rom and forego the use of a security pin. also, for the first time, when i went back into twrp to once again delete the locksettings.db file i was prompted to enter a password before i could modify the system. Odd.

ent3rpryze said:
i dont know what qualifies as a nandroid backup. the only backup i created was with the TWRP backup function which i later moved to my laptop, as previously mentioned. and yes, i did that before the problem occured. it was before I had even installed pure nexus.
btw, it happened AGAIN (#3 for those keeping score). i'm going to assume there's a bug in the rom and forego the use of a security pin. also, for the first time, when i went back into twrp to once again delete the locksettings.db file i was prompted to enter a password before i could modify the system. Odd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When making a nandroid (backup) in TWRP remove any pin, patter or fingerprints before backup or getting locked out will continue.

elevatorguy said:
When making a nandroid (backup) in TWRP remove any pin, patter or fingerprints before backup or getting locked out will continue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for that, but i believe i did that because i backuped a clean factory 6.0.1, sans any security setup. not sure if that was necessary but that's what i did.

ent3rpryze said:
i dont know what qualifies as a nandroid backup. the only backup i created was with the TWRP backup function which i later moved to my laptop, as previously mentioned. and yes, i did that before the problem occured. it was before I had even installed pure nexus.
btw, it happened AGAIN (#3 for those keeping score). i'm going to assume there's a bug in the rom and forego the use of a security pin. also, for the first time, when i went back into twrp to once again delete the locksettings.db file i was prompted to enter a password before i could modify the system. Odd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem isn't with the ROM, I (along with what I'm guessing is pretty much every other user) use fingerprint and/or PIN/pattern security on Pure Nexus with no issues. A nandroid backup is one of those backups you create with TWRP, so yes it's what you described. But this problem shouldn't be occurring on a clean flash of Pure Nexus, can you please explain in detailed steps how you installed the ROM?

ent3rpryze said:
Hi guys.
i'm new here and greatly appreciate the knowledge here. I recently installed purenexus on my 6p. first time installing a custom rom. worked beautifully until i decided to try out the lockscreen scramble pin feature. Now when I try to unlock my phone it doesn't recognize my PIN. i've tried many times and something undoubtedly went wrong. is this a known issue with scrambling your pin?
So what should i do? A quick google search suggested I restore a backup. Is this the recommended method? I did a factory back up, i think. i did the back up after the factory reset but before flashing purenexus. i used the default twrp back up settings, which i believe did not include the vendor file.
i'm a complete novice when it comes to this sort of thing so if someone can give me a step-by-step explanation for me to unscrew myself here i'd greatly appreciate it.
thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On Marshmallow, the scramble pin option is bugged if you use a long pin. Some rom devs choose to leave this out entirely. I haven't played with it to determine the cut off point but 4 digits is fine. I think I tried 8 digits once and it locked me out.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

ent3rpryze said:
found the solution.
"Delete this file /data/system/locksettings.db from TWRP."
I wish I had known this the first time it happened. Oh well. I sure hope this helps someone else in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome.. Thanks a bunch for posting this... I am using Oneplus 3T , Resurrection Remix 5.7.4 ( Marshmallow) . Had turned on Scrambled PIN.. Ran into same issue as yours.. Last option left for me was to do factory reset from TWRP but I was scared to lose Google Authenticator Setup on my phone and many other things... Your solution saved me!! :good::good:

I also had a similar problem:
- freshly installed Carbon ROM with TWRP
- added lockscreen password in phone
- locked screen
- tried accessing using password
The password just fails. Using a shorter password works normally. The failing password is 13 characters long.

Best software for complete backup in anticipation wipe / restore?

I understand that my stock Verizon HTC 10 will probably wind up having to be wiped if it is eventually going to gain root and / or S-off through Sunshine, if and when Sunshine supports the Verizon version of this phone. That being said, I am wondering what software others here use to do a complete backup / restore on an un-rooted phone. I've been searching, and so far have not found any options that seem to be able to make the phone "exactly as it had been." Is this not possible? I really don't want to have to go through loads of settings, etc. again. I'd like to be able to create some sort of backup just before doing whatever I need to do to root / S-off, and then once the rooting / S-off is done, do some sort of restore, and have my phone back in essentially the same state as it had bee, but with root and / or S-off.
Is this not possible?
Thanks!

I don't think so. I've been thinking the same thing and the only options that can back up all the apps, data, and settings require root. It's really quite frustrating.

A few minutes after I started this thread jcase posted the tweet indicating that they now have unlock and s-off for the Verizon HTC 10. I'm pretty sure we're going to have to wipe our phones in the process, though. I hope there's some solution better than starting from scratch.

Luckily I have a TB backup from my old phone and I've only had the 10 for a few days. I think I might just go ahead and root and then restore from that.

goodtimes50 said:
Luckily I have a TB backup from my old phone and I've only had the 10 for a few days. I think I might just go ahead and root and then restore from that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too have a couple of TB backups from my V10, however, all the apps were still Lollipop, so as big of a pain in the ass as it will be, I'm going to do a clean wipe when and start from scratch and make a base backup just for this phone.
The one thing I think I miss from the LG V10, is that it had a backup program built in that would back up your apps and stuff to the external SD. That was very bloody handy.

ufkal said:
The one thing I think I miss from the LG V10, is that it had a backup program built in that would back up your apps and stuff to the external SD. That was very bloody handy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What was the app called? I thought HTC had put most of their stock apps on the Play store?

goodtimes50 said:
What was the app called? I thought HTC had put most of their stock apps on the Play store?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it was LG Backup. It did basically what TB did and backed up all your current applications so you could restore them from wipe. I used it some. Fairly decent. IMO. Save some time

TB is the best but requires root. I am not sure of any backup apps that backup app data. I would take screen shots of your home screen and even the app drawer just to make sure you have everything. Once you gain TWRP, you can do an absolute complete backup.
Also, HTC used you have a decent backup up. Better than Google's backup imo. But it was discontinued for MM.