Database Users

Backup, upgrade and ... how to restore?

Hi all,
I just tried upgrading to cyanogenmod 2.1 - SUCCESS (thanks to this forum )
but now the next problem has presented itself... is it possible to restore my backup (more specific: text messages)?
I made a nandroid backup, and after I got to 2.1 I restored... and it did a good job, I got back to the original 1.6.
So put all this information in one question: is it possible to backup + restore my personal settings (text messages) without restoring the firmware?
Or is the backupfunction just a "I just f***ed up my phone"-lifeline?
Thanks

I see that you said you restored back to 1.6 fine using nandroid - have you checked to see if you still have your messages OK? If not then they are probably gone for good. Cant remember if you get messages back with Nandroid, as I have used BART the last couple of times which definitely included messages.
If that worked and you still have your messages, you need to use a backup app and backup those items prior to flashing 2.1, then you can just restore the messages.
I use MyBackUp Pro (there is a full test version that lasts 30 days so would probably be good for a one off demo - but is worth paying for full version as per my explanation) - it allows you to back up all apps incl their data, plus a lot of the paid apps and their data too under the app backup option; and then they also have a data backup option which allows you to backup things like contacts, sms, your home pages etc. Of course you can choose to back up all or pick individual items and its the same for restore.
This is very useful when wiping the phone, as you restore your apps backup first, then restore your data backup - thus it will also install all the widgets as the apps are already loaded - if you do it the other way around your widgets wont work and you will have to remove them from the home screen and then put them back again.

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

Best way to backup everything before flashing new ROM?

Hi everyone, so I was wondering what was the best way to backup everything, apps, apps' data and system settings before flashing a new ROM or the same but with new base (which usually requires a clean install).
I've been told that the TWRP backup isn't that great because it'll bring over the "junk" from the previous version, and it doesn't really backup photos for instance.
Samsung's SmartSwitch, at least for me, doesn't backup applications at all. I've tried the phone version as well as the computer one, the phone one crashes once it gets to the app part, the computer one finishes but then there are no apps backed up.
I tried Titanium Backup but I don't know exactly which is the best option, should I be backup just apps and data? Or system data as well? If the correct way is both and let's say that the new ROM is "more" debloated", wouldn't I be putting back in the bloatware by backing up system data as well?
As far as system is concerned I just want to backup something like alarms, memo, system settings like brightness and I think that's more or less it.
Thanks a lot to anyone that helps me, I've been making tons of backup recently trying to find the best solution but couldn't.

Personally I use Titanium Backup, including unlimited external AppData (see in Settings). By that I get at least 80% of my apps back with all the settings done. My photos/videos are stored on my SD and backupped via google photos.
Always looking for a better and easier way to do all this, but for the moment that works pretty well. Still takes 1 - 1&1/2 hours to switch rom, restore backups and set up all my apps that could not be backupped completely.

How can i fully back my phone with all settings and apps?

Hi all,
I have S8 with stock android and many applications installed on it some of them are payed etc... Is it possible to fully backup my phone with all settings wallpapers, sms-es, apps and everything? Then to wipe all data on it to be like a new one, and after that to restore the image and the phone to be like today with all apps settings and eeeeverything
The idea is that phone will be used temporarily from another person for some weeks but i dont want to loose my apps.
Thanks

Hi,
As far as I know, if you're not rooted, you have to use Samsung Kies or another software on PC to backup everything.
Personally, I use SMS & Call log Backup, My App List to backup/restore all applications with Google Play (purchased items too) and I have to open every application I'm using to make individual exports to SD card if the application offers it but that's not efficient...
So I will root and then use Titanium backup to backup everything with one click (app + settings).
Sincerely,

TiBu sucks? am I doing something wrong?

Hi, after rooting my phone with Magisk and having installed TiBu I proceeded to backup all user app + system data then I installed System app remover and removed some system apps that supposedly were "safe" to remove (briefing) but after a reboot I end up in a bootloop. I had to wipe everything and start from scratch (install ROM + Magisk)
On my first try I did not restore my data using Google + Samsung backup. I tried to restore my apps + system data using TiBu but after several hours of waiting to restore, it did not progress and stuck at 0%
On my second try I restored my data using google+samsung backup. After everything was set and ready I used TiBu's "Restore missing apps + all system data". This time TiBU did progress and completed the restore. After a reboot I start to notice that most of my apps/system settings customization are not even there... To name a few:
I had Full screen gestures instead of the navigation buttons. TiBu did not restore this
I had several accounts that TiBu did not restore (google, outlook, twitter, steam, blizzard, twitter and the list keeps going)
Simple things like Gboard was not even restored as default input method
Settings like one hand mode, edge lightning, quick panel layout, adaptive brightness, screen resolution (the list keeps going) were not restored the way I had them
TL;DR: TiBu did little to nothing despite having the pro version and the appropriate backup
My device:
Galaxy S10+ (Exynos SM-G975F)
Android 10 (G975FXXU3BSKO_G975FOWO3BSKO_ARO) patched with Magisk v20.2-11b7076a (20109)
I feel like I wasted my money..... worst spent 6+ dollars of my life

TiBu is a powerful tool if you know how to use it, in a majority of the cases restoring any complete system backup is always a bad idea. If you ever want to restore system data, you need to use nandroid backup or selected apps in TiBu. When you restore user apps (missing apps in your case) all their data is restored and restored to the level of functionality they had before backing up.
For full-screen gestures, it's likely some mismatch between existing settings and restored system settings.
As for the accounts, it was likely because of restoring the app itself, they would have been there even before you backed them up.
Again, for system settings, you can't rely on TiBu in One UI, restoring system settings barely works in stock android.
My workflow is like this, If I am just tinkering with the system but my phone is stable, I do a nandroid backup (backup in recovery) and try out the mod/feature if it suits me, I continue with it, if not I restore back.
If I know I want to format, I generally need to do this when I've messed up in the system and need to start over. I install all I need in TWRP, setup the system only restoring call and SMS backup from Samsung Cloud, restore missing apps and go through the phone settings and set them up again. This ensures no ****ups from the previous install come back and now that I end up doing it regularly, I can do all this under 30 mins.

firesword14 said:
TiBu is a powerful tool if you know how to use it, in a majority of the cases restoring any complete system backup is always a bad idea. If you ever want to restore system data, you need to use nandroid backup or selected apps in TiBu. When you restore user apps (missing apps in your case) all their data is restored and restored to the level of functionality they had before backing up.
For full-screen gestures, it's likely some mismatch between existing settings and restored system settings.
As for the accounts, it was likely because of restoring the app itself, they would have been there even before you backed them up.
Again, for system settings, you can't rely on TiBu in One UI, restoring system settings barely works in stock android.
My workflow is like this, If I am just tinkering with the system but my phone is stable, I do a nandroid backup (backup in recovery) and try out the mod/feature if it suits me, I continue with it, if not I restore back.
If I know I want to format, I generally need to do this when I've messed up in the system and need to start over. I install all I need in TWRP, setup the system only restoring call and SMS backup from Samsung Cloud, restore missing apps and go through the phone settings and set them up again. This ensures no ****ups from the previous install come back and now that I end up doing it regularly, I can do all this under 30 mins.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for taking your time to reply this thread, I am clearly new at this and I am barely scratching the surface. Gonna try and search more info about this "nandroid backup" (not even know what this is and how it works) you mention and see how it works. As for "TRWP" I read something about it but per the offical site: "Long story short, TWRP support for Android 10 is going to take a while." and that is why I did not pay attention to this app