Database Users

nandroid + flashing/restoring across roms

I'm having a little trouble understanding nandroid vs. other forms of backup and would appreciate some clarification. I'm running CM nightly on my Fido (Canada) G4. I took a nandroid as well as titanium backup of the factory stock image before I flashed CM.
A poster in the last thread I made suggested if I wanted to restore to stock, I could simply restore the nandroid, but I've also seen people say you shouldn't use nandroid to go across ROMs. My understanding is that nandroid is like having a filesystem backup, which would obviously not react well if you restored it over a new operating system (e.g. two different versions of windows). Or is nandroid more like say Acronis, which takes an entire disk image and overwrites everything?
Other misc questions:
- If I do restore via nandroid, do I need to wipe all data / cache / system data before or after the restore?
- I assume I can use titanium to restore SMS + all non-system apps across ROMs, which would save a lot of time.
- If I'm going from one CM nightly to another, would titanium work for system apps (e.g. all my settings, or contacts, etc)
- If I want to flash a new CM nightly, do I need to follow the entire wipe procedure just as if it were going from one ROM to a completely different one?
Thanks!

always make a nandroid in recovery. i recommend keeping it on your micro sd card. in the event you need to return your device to it's previously functioning state, restore the nandroid in recovery. if you are running an aosp rom and your nandroid is touchwiz, wipe data, cache & dalvik before restoring the nandroid. if the backup is on your micro sd then feel free to wipe system as well.
if you want to flash a nightly or update to a rom you are currently running, simply wipe cache and dalvik then flash the update, gapps and any custom kernel that you may be running.
i cannot answer your titanium backup questions because i do not use that program

xBeerdroiDx said:
always make a nandroid in recovery. i recommend keeping it on your micro sd card. in the event you need to return your device to it's previously functioning state, restore the nandroid in recovery. if you are running an aosp rom and your nandroid is touchwiz, wipe data, cache & dalvik before restoring the nandroid. if the backup is on your micro sd then feel free to wipe system as well.
if you want to flash a nightly or update to a rom you are currently running, simply wipe cache and dalvik then flash the update, gapps and any custom kernel that you may be running.
i cannot answer your titanium backup questions because i do not use that program
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yes, that's about what I have. ok, thank you for the clarification of what to wipe! that's good to know.
re flashing a nightly/update: using your method should preserve system data yes? so no need to reinstall all apps or system data?
and thanks, I'll hold out hope that someone with titanium expertise will be able to answer that one

kabutar said:
re flashing a nightly/update: using your method should preserve system data yes? so no need to reinstall all apps or system data?
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Click to collapse
yes, system/user data will remain. understand, however, that if you perform one of these dirty flashes and you have a problem with the functionality of the ROM, you'll need to do a full wipe and flash to see if this clears the issue before you report the problem in the development thread.

kabutar said:
yes, that's about what I have. ok, thank you for the clarification of what to wipe! that's good to know.
re flashing a nightly/update: using your method should preserve system data yes? so no need to reinstall all apps or system data?
and thanks, I'll hold out hope that someone with titanium expertise will be able to answer that one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your right on both titanium questions.. However its not recommended to restore system apps you backed up on a aokp/aosp ROM to a touchwiz ROM and the other way around... Other than that like I said your fine
Sent from my WANAM'ED AT&T S4

[Q] About using / wiping using TWRP

Hello people. Just wanted to ask how is the right way to wipe when flashing a rom WITHOUT losing the rom (wiping internal)? In CWM i just factory / reset data then thats it then clear cache and dalvik cache. In TWRP do i just need to swipe when the screen says "Most of the time this is the time that you need" when i will flash rom? Thanks for guiding!

anyone?

1. factory reset
2. advance, wipe system
thats all for me, works everytime... just make sure to wipe cache/dalvik after flashing zip files be it roms or gapps or whatever :good:

The default "most of the time" option is a fresh reset of the phone. it wont wipe the ROM itself, but all the data will be lost and you start over. Wiping system will remove everything, a ROM must be flashed after wiping system.

So before i flash a rom i wipe the "most of the time" then advanced format system? right?

zero0422 said:
The default "most of the time" option is a fresh reset of the phone. it wont wipe the ROM itself, but all the data will be lost and you start over. Wiping system will remove everything, a ROM must be flashed after wiping system.
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So before i flash a rom i wipe the "most of the time" then advanced format system? right?

true that... sorry for misleading initially, format system only applicable if you wanna have clean install of new rom

marshygeek said:
So before i flash a rom i wipe the "most of the time" then advanced format system? right?
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Click to collapse
No need to use format system unless you are installing a fresh ROM. Format system will remove everything from your device (other than sdcard info and all that). So you get a clean slate.
If you just want to flash an update to the same ROM you can either 'dirty flash', which I usually just wipe cahce/dalvik then flash the ROM and reboot, and you save all your user modified things, or you can wipe system and install the ROM. You lose everything that way so make backups.
Usually there isnt much need to factory reset unless you're having an issue with something. What is it you're trying to do?

I wanted to flash a stock based rom. Thank you.

Need help with Lollipop bugs

I have updated my phone to latest official 5.0.1 and have also installed the 355 mb update that came after the main lollipop update Have wiped cached and data and done a clean install yet i still have some of the lolipop bugs..They are as follows:
1. homescreen Wallpaper gets set to default wallpaper randomly.
2. Keyboard crashes few times in a day.
3. Using snapchat and other apps continuously causes the phone to reboot
4. Overheating...phone gets heated like mad.
I noticed most of this happens when I am on 3g and on wifi everything works smooth.
my phone is rooted. Please let me know if there are tweaks or apps that i can install to fix these bugs. Thanks so much!
Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

I think you should try some custom roms which base on android 5.0.1 for S4, suggest Omega Rom v28 .
This will fix those bugs easily

hey thankss! Can i install custom rom n retain my data or i will hv to wipe the data???

techspark said:
hey thankss! Can i install custom rom n retain my data or i will hv to wipe the data???
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Click to collapse
Start with a clean device. Thus wipe your data.
It's not needed to wipe your internal storage. But make sure to wipe /system, /cache en /data (without internal storage).

Hey thanks for your reply. Can you tell me how to wipe data without wiping internal storage ?? Generally when i wipe data or do a factory reset it wipes everything.

techspark said:
Hey thanks for your reply. Can you tell me how to wipe data without wiping internal storage ?? Generally when i wipe data or do a factory reset it wipes everything.
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Use custom recovery like TWRP.

factory reset on custom rom

I haven't been able to find an answer upon searching and haven't come across this in my time reading forum posts.
So if I go to settings - backup and reset and do a factory reset from there.
I will lose all my data on internal storage, yes. But will the Android system boot into the same rom with Gapps and all just without any data at all? Allowing me to set it up as a new phone completely.
I'm on official Resurrection remix.
Edit - here's what I did. Thanks @Sam Nakamura
1. Clean flashed the ROM I wanted to use. (wipe everything except internal storage)
2. Booted into the ROM and set up Google account.
3. Booted into twrp and wiped internal storage.
4. Rebooted into system.
Everything is good as new. Setting it up from scratch now.

Isn't better doing it from recovery?

fabrquila said:
Isn't better doing it from recovery?
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Trying to find out how. Want to delete all data including internal storage.
Want to lose all apps, files. Basically exactly as a new phone, just with a custom ROM.

pranayysharma29 said:
Trying to find out how. Want to delete all data including internal storage.
Want to lose all apps, files. Basically exactly as a new phone, just with a custom ROM.
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Click to collapse
Just use wipe data/factory reset function in TWRP and use the advanced wipe options.

fabrquila said:
Just use wipe data/factory reset function in TWRP and use the advanced wipe options.
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Click to collapse
And check everything, swipe to delete and reboot? But that way I won't have any rom or Gapps installed, will i?

pranayysharma29 said:
And check everything, swipe to delete and reboot? But that way I won't have any rom or Gapps installed, will i?
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Click to collapse
Not if you don't wipe system partition, where ROM and Gapps are located. Just if something goes wrong, you should have a way to flash these zips. You can use TWRP to transfer them.

Basically I'm not sure which partitions to wipe. As I don't know what is contained in which partition. Which is what I'm trying to understand
How to use twrp to transfer them? I lost you at that.

pranayysharma29 said:
Basically I'm not sure which partitions to wipe. As I don't know what is contained in which partition. Which is what I'm trying to understand
How to use twrp to transfer them? I lost you at that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wipe data, cache, dalvik, and internal storage partitions. Don't wipe system.
Data contains your apps. Cache works as cache for apps and dalvik has a similar function afaik. Internal storage stands for the internal memory, where files that you download, transfer or receive, are located.
I'm trying to say that you should have a backup of ROM and gapps just in case something bad happens, which I don't think. If that happens, just boot the phone in TWRP and plug it to a computer. Then transfer zip files of ROM and Gapps to internal storage, and then flash them. Voilá, clean ROM and full operative Gapps.
Sorry for taking so much to reply, I didn't see notifications in the forum.

fabrquila said:
Wipe data, cache, dalvik, and internal storage partitions. Don't wipe system.
Data contains your apps. Cache works as cache for apps and dalvik has a similar function afaik. Internal storage stands for the internal memory, where files that you download, transfer or receive, are located.
I'm trying to say that you should have a backup of ROM and gapps just in case something bad happens, which I don't think. If that happens, just boot the phone in TWRP and plug it to a computer. Then transfer zip files of ROM and Gapps to internal storage, and then flash them. Voilá, clean ROM and full operative Gapps.
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Thanks for the explanation about the partitions.
I managed to achieve what I set out for.
Did a clean flash of my ROM. Then went on to wipe internal storage in twrp. Now have a new rom and everything. But clean slate for internal storage.

Internal Storage Decryption problem

Hi.
I have huge problem. I have Redmi Note 7 with xiaomi.eu (Last stable MIUI 10 version). Today I decided to update it to latest version (MIUI 11). Before it, I made backup via TWRP and then perform update. Update successfull. I thought that I prefer MIUI 10 so in TWRP perform wipe dalvic and cache and make restore backup. Backup succesfull. But... System wont boot up. In TWRP I cant see internal storage (0MB), TWRP ask for decryption password but the password from unlocking phone doesnt work. I dont know what to do. I dont want to lose my data. I found info that OrangeFOx recovery could be helpful so I flashed OrangeFox recovery. But it also ask for password.
Help please.

mcichy10 said:
Hi.
I have huge problem. I have Redmi Note 7 with xiaomi.eu (Last stable MIUI 10 version). Today I decided to update it to latest version (MIUI 11). Before it, I made backup via TWRP and then perform update. Update successfull. I thought that I prefer MIUI 10 so in TWRP perform wipe dalvic and cache and make restore backup. Backup succesfull. But... System wont boot up. In TWRP I cant see internal storage (0MB), TWRP ask for decryption password but the password from unlocking phone doesnt work. I dont know what to do. I dont want to lose my data. I found info that OrangeFOx recovery could be helpful so I flashed OrangeFox recovery. But it also ask for password.
Help please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're out of luck. You need to format your data partition - and you will lose your data and all the contents of your internal storage.

DarthJabba9 said:
You're out of luck. You need to format your data partition - and you will lose your data and all the contents of your internal storage.
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Click to collapse
Is there any way to backup storage eg. via adb or something and try later to restore it?
EDIT
I performed wipe, install latest android. Data is gone. I found some windows apps to restore data after factory reset via adb. I'll try this in next week

mcichy10 said:
Is there any way to backup storage eg. via adb or something and try later to restore it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.
mcichy10 said:
EDIT
I performed wipe, install latest android. Data is gone. I found some windows apps to restore data after factory reset via adb. I'll try this in next week
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Click to collapse
Good luck!
PS: if your original MIUI 10 backup included /data, then you should be able to restore the data after formatting, flashing a fresh copy of the MIUI 10 ROM, booting the ROM, and then, booting back to recovery and restoring the data backup. But the content of your internal storage is gone forever (if you didn't back it up before).

Unfortunately I lost all my data (mainly photos). I'll buy microsd to store data and backups.