Database Users

Samsung S4 I9505 no Whatsapp backup possible

Hi,
I can't perform a Whatsapp backup since January this year, regardless if Google Drive Backup is checked, if the Whatsapp app is stored in the local or on sd card memory, automatic backups are being cancelled, too.
After I hit "Backup", the Dialogue "Messages are being backed up" shows up, which closes after 10 sec without any error message.
I tried to contact the WA Support, but they insist that my S4 is rooted (which it isn't, maybe because of the custom ROM I use).
I have flashed my Samsung I9505 in January this year from CM 12.1 to CM 13. At the beginning, the phone ran smoothless except BT. After a while, WiFi stopped working as well. I tried to flash the CM 12.1 backup and radios without any success, just a new mainboard helped. I installed my CM 12.1 backup from January via TWRP from my old mainboard, which ran without any errors on it (after a fullwipe on the new one).
The phone works great, except the WA backup.
WA gets always updated to the current version, I have ~1,2 GB free internal memory, I tried to update to the latest CM 12.1 5.1.1 version from 12/26/2015, perform a backup via 4G, 3G, Wifi, with an without Google Backup checked, cleared the cache and wiped Dalvic Cache, there is no app deactivated.
I use Baseband I9505XXUHOD7 and Kernel: 3.4.107-cyanogenmod-gab9afd6clyde.

Running a custom ROM means you are rooted.
Now, I don't know why whatsapp wouldn't work on a rooted ROM, but if you want to backup you can use titanium backup.

GDReaper said:
Running a custom ROM means you are rooted.
Now, I don't know why whatsapp wouldn't work on a rooted ROM, but if you want to backup you can use titanium backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no root, please check the screenshot below.
Since there is no root, I can't use Titanium Backup, however, it wouldn't be the most practicable way to backup your Whatsapp history every time with Titanium Backup.
Besides that, I don't think this would work if I would like to transfer my history to a new phone on which WA Backup should work as intended as I won't flash the ROM/install root and void the warranty.
WA backup worked perfect with the old logicboard before flashing CM 13.

m_pa said:
There is no root, please check the screenshot below.
Since there is no root, I can't use Titanium Backup, however, it wouldn't be the most practicable way to backup your Whatsapp history every time with Titanium Backup.
Besides that, I don't think this would work if I would like to transfer my history to a new phone on which WA Backup should work as intended as I won't flash the ROM/install root and void the warranty.
WA backup worked perfect with the old logicboard before flashing CM 13.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root has to be activated from developer options.
That is definitely a whatsapp problem if it worked before.

GDReaper said:
Root has to be activated from developer options.
That is definitely a whatsapp problem if it worked before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I haven't even unlocked the developer options until now..
Any idea how to convince WA doing it's job? Anybody with this problem before?

if you really want a backup it makes more sense that you either activate root or flash superSU yourself rather than wait on whatsapp to change their code just for you. they've already told you effectively that they aren't going to do anything for you and don't have to.
backing up the app and data with TiBu and copying the whatsapp folder achieves everything you want and has worked flawlessly for me many many times.

Well guys, got a new phone but the problem persists when trying to restore my history on the new phone and really need your help.
Got root on the old phone and saved the com.whatsapp folder of it with the key file and databases. How can I encrypt the msgstore.db to msgstore.db.crypt8?
I have tried the app Whatcrypt, which creates a msgstore.db.crypt file, as large as msgstore.db, but Whatsapp on the new phone does not recognize it as a backup file.
When using whatcrypt.com and uploading the key and msgstore.db, it tells me "Encryption failed / Incorrect account?"
Also tried Omni-Crypt app. It creates msgstore.crypt, which Whatsapp ignores as well ("searching for Backups" with waiting triangle for hours)
I don't know any other way and I'm literally stuck now

when i mentioned copying the apps folder i was thinking of the one on the root of your internal storage, not the one in Android/data/...
you can paste that onto a new phone and restore the app and data with titanium.

3mel said:
when i mentioned copying the apps folder i was thinking of the one on the root of your internal storage, not the one in Android/data/...
you can paste that onto a new phone and restore the app and data with titanium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I can copy the Whatsapp folder on the root of the storage but this folder only contains the wa media files of my old phone since there are no msgstore.db.cryptX files created by Whatsapp.
For TiBa I would need to root the new phone which is a S7 Edge and I would like to avoid this until the warranty has expired. It is not as easy to do repairs by yourself as the S4..

fair enough, have you tried copying both folders over and installing from playstore ? or rather, install the app but don't open it, copy over both folders and then try and see what happens...

Cannot restore backup from Samsung Cloud

Hi, in these days my phone was sent to service repair. Now all data is cleared. Before repair I made a full backup via Samsung account.
Now I can't restore backup, also tried wipe data and re-flash firmware.
At first boot tried to restore backup, when it search for backups, it appear a loading bar with something like "Restore" and it looking for backups but it will disappear in few seconds.
I have minimum of 3 backups stored, tried to redo a backup manually and restore but I can't, same via Settings->Backup and restore.
What can I do? It seems that I can't restore my past and future backups.
Thank you

Hi, I have same problem, did you already solve it?

Not yet, I think that it's not a problem related with the smartphone but with the account. I think that we have to call Samsung support.

Same issue here with S7!

SOLVED! Resetted the app Samsung Cloud and then updated, reboot, wait 2/3 mins and restored backup successfully.

Did not work. How did you reset? Just cleared the data? And I see no updates..
Sent from my ZTE BLADE V0730 using Tapatalk

sudaltsov said:
Did not work. How did you reset? Just cleared the data? And I see no updates..
Sent from my ZTE BLADE V0730 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, cleared cache and data. It worked for me.
You may try to see logs.
1. Open dialer and compose *#9900#, clic on DEBUG LEVEL and select MID or HIGH, your device will reboot automatically.
2. Redo the procedure to try to restore backup(in this way you will generate the logs for your issue)
3. Open dialer and compose *#9900#, clic on RUN DUMPSTATE/LOGCAT/MODEM LOG, wait for the process to complete and select COPY TO SD CARD (include CP RAMDUMP)
4. Search for the log file and see if you can read something wrong.

Contacted Samsung Support. And that is exactly what they did - updated (some nontrivial way) Samsung Cloud app. Then I could do the restore! Hurray!

what should i do next after this?

If anyone still has this issue, what worked for me was to go to Galaxy Apps and update the Cloud app. (You have to display system apps.)
It's a tip I found here:
https://forums.androidcentral.com/s...rver-try-again-later.html?passport=1548204689

You can follow the steps to get back your Samsung data.
1. Recover the wanted data from Samsung Account. To get back your files, you need to go to Settings and elect Accounts once again. Next, choose Samsung account and tap on Restore. After that, you can select the file types that you want to restore and click on Restore now to start restoring.
2. Confirm your option. After taping on the Restore now option, a pop-up prompt will appear to ask you to confirm your action. Just tap on ok to proceed the process.

I had a problem with restoring my repaired phone. It turned out I had two Samsung Cloud accounts; one with one phone contact and approximately 6 photos. The two SC accounts were attached to two different emails. I found this out by logging in to Samsung Cloud on my PC. Then I had to do a hard restore on my phone and then I was able to sign in to the correct SC account and could restore my precious data.

Home and Recents Button not working after device reboot

Hi all, been trying to solve this problem for a while, can't seem to figure it out.
Yesterday, when my phone died and I charged and turned it back on, the recents and home buttons wouldn't work, in addition to my notifications not showing and the quick settings drawer not coming down. This seems to be a problem others have ran into. Here's what I've tried so far:
clearing dalvik cache and regular cache
updating my ROM (I use AICP)
restoring an old backup of AICP
starting my phone in safe mode (all errors persist)
using ADB to attempt to get into the SetupWizardTestActivity as advised here
The error I get from this:
Code:
adb shell am start -n com.google.android.setupwizard/.SetupWizardTestActivity
Starting: Intent { cmp=com.google.android.setupwizard/.SetupWizardTestActivity }
java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: starting Intent { flg=0x10000000 cmp=com.google.android.setupwizard/.SetupWizardTestActivity } from null (pid=12048, uid=2000) not exported from uid 10072
at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1684)
at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1637)
at android.app.ActivityManagerProxy.startActivityAsUser(ActivityManagerNative.java:3160)
at com.android.commands.am.Am.runStart(Am.java:643)
at com.android.commands.am.Am.onRun(Am.java:394)
at com.android.internal.os.BaseCommand.run(BaseCommand.java:51)
at com.android.commands.am.Am.main(Am.java:124)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.nativeFinishInit(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.main(RuntimeInit.java:264)
I also tried switching from my user to a Guest user, but it won't allow me to go into the Users. At this point, I decided to take a backup on my laptop and factory reset, but after plugging my phone into my laptop, I realized I can't change the USB connection type from charging to mass storage (or whatever it is) to access the files on my laptop since I can't see notifications. This lead me to Developer Options, where I get the message "Developer options are not available for this user."
So then I tried to make an activity in Nova for the SetupTestActivity as detailed here, but the closest thing I can find in there is under Settings about activating the cellular service, and when I try to use that I just get "Permission denied" error.
After all of this, I looked into backing up my device via ADB using this command:
Code:
adb backup -apk -shared -all
It tells me to unlock my device to confirm the backup operation, but there is nothing shown on my device indicating a confirmation.
Then I went into my file manager (I use Xplore) and it indicates that my device is not rooted. I don't know how that could've happened, although I have not tried re-rooting it to see if that helps. Any suggestions or do I just have to do a factory reset and lose all my data?

markgnarza said:
... Any suggestions or do I just have to do a factory reset and lose all my data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not use TWRP to create a newer backup? You can also use TWRP's MTP to move anything off the phone you want. Then flash a full Google image with flash-all.bat. You can try it without the -w switch first if you like. I doubt it's a hardware issue, but stranger things have happened, and returning to stock briefly will let you know right away.

v12xke said:
Why not use TWRP to create a newer backup? You can also use TWRP's MTP to move anything off the phone you want. Then flash a full Google image with flash-all.bat. You can try it without the -w switch first if you like. I doubt it's a hardware issue, but stranger things have happened, and returning to stock briefly will let you know right away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ended up uploading my Titanium backups/other files I wanted to keep to Google Drive and factory resetting, but now the setup wizard keeps crashing. Think I'm gonna try a full wipe and flash of AICP again to see if that does it.

markgnarza said:
I ended up uploading my Titanium backups/other files I wanted to keep to Google Drive and factory resetting, but now the setup wizard keeps crashing. Think I'm gonna try a full wipe and flash of AICP again to see if that does it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, hope that works for ya. Nowadays with Google backup for market apps and TiBu for everything else, it doesn't take long (less than one hour) to completely wipe, clean install, and restore everything back the way it was. Especially if you have a good internet connection. I use my Solid Explorer to zip the TiBu folder into a single file and transfer that off to my PC. Try that next time and see if it saves you some time. My TiBu zip files are well over 1GB, so I don't u/l them to the cloud. Curious if you have TWRP why you did not have MTP file transfer from recovery to laptop?

v12xke said:
Okay, hope that works for ya. Nowadays with Google backup for market apps and TiBu for everything else, it doesn't take long (less than one hour) to completely wipe, clean install, and restore everything back the way it was. Especially if you have a good internet connection. I use my Solid Explorer to zip the TiBu folder into a single file and transfer that off to my PC. Try that next time and see if it saves you some time. My TiBu zip files are well over 1GB, so I don't u/l them to the cloud. Curious if you have TWRP why you did not have MTP file transfer from recovery to laptop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked! And all my Titanium backups + photos are still intact on my phone? Seems strange to me. I hadn't thought of zipping my TiBu folder, good idea!
As for using TWRP to transfer to laptop, I'm not sure how that process works! I'll look around in TWRP once I'm done restoring everything to see what you mean, good to keep in mind for the future. Thanks for the help!

My honor got the same problem... I know they were working but now they don't.. what should i do??

[Q] How would I create a full backup with ADB?

I assume this is possible. Usually I would do this with TWRP (which you can do), but this method does not require root necessarily.
I want a backup I can restore in case things go sideways.

I managed to do this. Here are the basic instructions.
Have developer options available, select USB debugging. On PC, install minimal adb and fastboot, install essential drivers. Connect phone to PC, select transfer files MTP under USB connected options in notifications. If USB debugging prompt prompts up on phone, check alway allow and ok.
Run cmd.exe as admin and navigate to you ADB install directory. Type "adb root" if rooted or just "adb" if not. ADB should start.
Type adb backup -system -apk -shared -all -f C:\filenameyouchoose.ab
On the phone, type a password for encryption if wanted and touch Back Up My Data.
Presto, now all that's left is to wait. The -apk is to back up apps and -shared is to backup internal SD card data. Change those if you don't want that data backed up.
The command to restore the backup is adb restore C:\filenameyouchoose.ab
Full XDA guide here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-phone-backup-unlock-root-t1420351

Thanks! I'm attempting this procedure for the first time. I am at the place where I am supposed to enter a password to encrypt my backup. The "Back Up My Data" button does nothing. I've tapped all over and around it. The "Do Not Backup" button works just fine and it cancels the operation instantly. My adb session ends. If I tap all over the "Back Up My Data" eventually the operation times out. What could I possibly be doing wrong? Has anyone ever seen this behavior before? (It's super hard to troubleshoot problems with no feedback or error codes.)

I set a desktop backup password in developer options. It still wouldn't go. Then I rebooted and it worked after a fresh boot. Not sure why. I hope that is helpful to someone.

Grep_The_Truth said:
Thanks! I'm attempting this procedure for the first time. I am at the place where I am supposed to enter a password to encrypt my backup. The "Back Up My Data" button does nothing. I've tapped all over and around it. The "Do Not Backup" button works just fine and it cancels the operation instantly. My adb session ends. If I tap all over the "Back Up My Data" eventually the operation times out. What could I possibly be doing wrong? Has anyone ever seen this behavior before? (It's super hard to troubleshoot problems with no feedback or error codes.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, while I was typing out the message, seems you already solved it.
Previous message: I had similar issue when I was trying to install apps using apk(s) files. It turned out to be the app Twilight app which didn't allow me to click install button except cancel: "The prompt for screen overlay detected is presented when an installed application is allowed to Draw over other apps is running in the background" See if your issue has something to do with an app.

Charkatak said:
...It turned out to be the app Twilight app...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brilliant! That was it. Jolly good show, sir!

File size of backup
Just wondering if anyone gets vastly different file sizes when they do a complete backup? The first time i tried this i got a backup file of about 600mb. I did it again with a different file name to the same folder and it was double the size. The third time i tried it was back to the original smaller size. My fear is that this is not a reliable means for complete backup. Is there any way of seeing whats inside this backup?

I have stumbled upon this command and my question is, is this as powerful as a nandroid backup? Since we don't have permanent TWRP (Yet?), I feel really unsafe while messing with the phone (The whole A/B thing which I still need to get used to doesn't help either) and considering the times nandroid backup saved my device I could really use something equally powerful to fall back on.

I tried the ADB backup and it took a while and generated a ~10GB file for me, but restoring to a new phone didn't work. No errors or anything, it just went real fast and didn't seem to do anything. I didn't care to try to investigate it because I just needed to get my new phone up and send the broken one back.
I ended up using TWRP from the boot partition (obviously not backing up boot), then installing twrp on boot on the new phone and restoring the system and data, next copying the sdcard contents to the computer using adb pull and adb push onto the new phone, finally flashing the correct boot.img, and I was back up and running on a replacement phone right where I left off on the old one. ...
One caveat is if your old phone is on a different firmware you have to update the new phone to match before all this.

SM-G900F Random bootloop

Hi,
First post, so be gentle. I searched the forum and found quite a few posts about a boot looping S5 but most referring to custom ROMs - my phone started doing this on its own. Running marshmallow 6.0.1. Its almost 3 years old, and up until now has never caused problems. It was charging when this first happened, and it could have updated (I have no way of knowing what update though).
First thing I tried was a new battery, I charged it up with the phone off, but it still wouldn't boot.
The problem:
-It either hangs on the startup splash screen ("Samsung GALAXY S5") and can only be turned off by pulling the battery (sometimes), or.. it restarts on the same screen (mostly).
-If I leave it for 10 minutes without a battery, it goes further, getting to the point where it asks for the password, but then freezes at this point at restarts.
-I can get into recovery (vol up + home + power buttons) and have cleared the cache. It never hangs or freezes whilst in recovery.
-Whilst I had enabled developer options (used for debugging bluetooth problems once) I have NOT enabled USB debugging - so it seems ADB push/pull to recover user data won't work.
I don't really want to do a factory reset as google hasn't backed up everything, so I'm stuck. Does TWRP or clockworkmod go into the recovery partition (sparing user data)? Or do these only work after a factory reset? I have read a fair bit about Odin, Kies, and firmware updates, but as I don't know what the problem is, I have no idea where to start - I was hoping there are some kind of debug logs on the phone that could at least point to the cause, but of course I cannot access it. The fact it doesn't crash/hang/restart in recovery leads me to believe it isn't a hardware problem - but the fact this happened suddenly without me changing anything is suspicious. Ideas?

If you have an SD card inserted remove it - a corrupt SD can cause bootloops
If it boots without sd card transfer what you need from it to a pc either via USB card reader or via USB cable whilst in twrp
Once done format sd card & transfer files back - note only transfer back personal files eg pics music etc & not the android folder or any app data
If it still bootloops your only choice maybe a factory reset
You can flash twrp at any time - it will not erase userdata unless you goto the wipe section & do it yourself
You can create a backup & extract it on a pc but remember twrp backups do not backup personal files like pics music docs
You can however mount internal storage & transfer what ever files you want to pc
If all else fails flash stock firmware via odin

TheFixItMan said:
If you have an SD card inserted remove it - a corrupt SD can cause bootloops
If it boots without sd card transfer what you need from it to a pc either via USB card reader or via USB cable whilst in twrp
Once done format sd card & transfer files back - note only transfer back personal files eg pics music etc & not the android folder or any app data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, it stil does it without the SD - forgot to mention I tried that too.
TheFixItMan said:
You can flash twrp at any time - it will not erase userdata unless you goto the wipe section & do it yourself
You can create a backup & extract it on a pc but remember twrp backups do not backup personal files like pics music docs
You can however mount internal storage & transfer what ever files you want to pc
If all else fails flash stock firmware via odin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, this is what I was hoping. So twrp, goes onto the recovery partition? I did read (here: hxxps://twrp.me/faq/backupexclusions.html ), as you mentioned, that TWRP doesn't back up internal storage automagically. Even if done manually, as long as I can transfer the files to PC, I'll be happy. Thankfully, it's only one folder of photos that I google didn't back up, but I might as well grab everything.
I may post back with questions, thanks for the reply!

Right, I keep reading that "USB debugging" must be enabled when installing TWRP, or doing almost anything. But I don't have this enabled, and I can't enable it since I don't have access to the phones system. Is this required to install TWRP? I know it is required to use ADB which I believe is used to flash the TWRP. If this is the case, it looks like a dead end. I did find one link claiming to enable USB debugging from a recovery, but the instructions are incomplete, and it also mentions performing a factory reset first - which kind of defeats the point.

BuriedCode said:
Right, I keep reading that "USB debugging" must be enabled when installing TWRP, or doing almost anything. But I don't have this enabled, and I can't enable it since I don't have access to the phones system. Is this required to install TWRP? I know it is required to use ADB which I believe is used to flash the TWRP. If this is the case, it looks like a dead end. I did find one link claiming to enable USB debugging from a recovery, but the instructions are incomplete, and it also mentions performing a factory reset first - which kind of defeats the point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the g900f all you have to do is the following
Install Samsung USB drivers https://developer.samsung.com/galaxy/others/android-usb-driver-for-windows
Put phone into download mode (hold Vol down home & power button) & connect to pc
Push Vol up to start connection
Open odin https://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4431749&d=1519672710
Place twrp.tar in the AP section & flash
https://dl.twrp.me/klte/
As soon as the phone restarts enter recovery - hold Vol up home power button
If the phone starts to boot before entering recovery you will need to flash it again - once you have entered twrp once it will stick

Once again, thank you for the clear instructions. I Successfully got TWRP on my phone, and it appears on the PC so I could see the file structure in explorer (!). Progress.
I went to copy two photos as a test - MPT/USB transfers have always been unreliable for me anyway - and the phone froze. I only noticed when the touch screen became unresponsive and the clock wasn't updating. So this could well be the original problem - a hardware issue that causes the phone to freeze when it does anything remotely taxing. Or.. it could be the MPT transfer.
Either way, I had to pull the battery and it seems the TWRP didn't take as when I tried to boot into recovery, it had the stock recovery menu. So at least I'm not going backwards, nothing is broken.
Now I know how to get TWRP on there, and to boot back into recovery right away, and I know that it works. Next up is getting it on there and leaving it for 10 minutes to see if it crashes/freezes. If its OK, then I'll have to look for another way to pull files off. Can one use ADB with TWRP? If its enabled then I could use "pull" to get the files off and hopefully quicker (or at least more reliably) than ****ty MPT. Ideally I'd like to just pull everything off so I can decide what to add back later after a fresh reset.
Thank you once again for your advice!

Replying to my own post. It still can crash (screen has random colours on it and it freezes) but rarely whilst in TWRP. I was able to use adb and pull off all my camera photos that weren't backed up, and with the "-a" option, keep the file attributes.
Also solved the MPT problem - if anyone has the same issue or cares - using USB 3.0 sockets on my PC and only at the back rather than the sockets on the front (which are awful quality anyway). It's sitll onyl USB 2.0 but I guess the socket is higher quality.
Last question which I may make another thread for: How can I back up contacts, internet bookmarks, SMS and "memos" from a Samsung S5? I read that TWRP does not back these up, so I would need the location of the directory where these are stored. My google fu yielded somewhat vague answers from stackexchange, but no exact directories. If TWRP includes these in backup great, if not I would like to know if there is any kind of work around. MMS messages probably aren't that important, but contacts and memos really are. If I find any answers, I'll post back for others. Cheers!

Right, I realise people either know this, or don't care, but I did say I would post with anything I've found. I couldn't find the answers googling, so I was digging around in the file browser in TWRP.
- Almost everything in data/media - which isnt' backed up by TWRP - is exposed to MPT. I say almost everything, because some isn't, but I backed up the entire folder anyway with adb pull. This is the "internal SDcard" people mention in forums (internal memory partition, not an actual card). Simply copying from windows explorer grabs the files, but not with the correct directory structure. Best to use adb pull with the -a option to keep file attributes.
- Samsung memos, bookmarks (from the samsung internet browser), and contacts are not stored in /data/media. Rather these are in data/data. in the following places (absolute directories):
- memos: data/data/com.samsung.android.app.memo/databases/memo.db
- bookmarks: data/data/com.sec.android.app.sbrowser/databases/SBrowser.db
- contacts: data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db
It seems TWRP does not back these up -I could be wrong though. Samsung's own utilities probably do but I have never used them. I don't know if google stores these either since I haven't used its backups to check.
I am still unclear of exactly what TWRO backup backs up. I understand that the /media folder is not included (downloads, photos, music etc..) but are app settings in data/data included?

BuriedCode said:
Right, I realise people either know this, or don't care, but I did say I would post with anything I've found. I couldn't find the answers googling, so I was digging around in the file browser in TWRP.
- Almost everything in data/media - which isnt' backed up by TWRP - is exposed to MPT. I say almost everything, because some isn't, but I backed up the entire folder anyway with adb pull. This is the "internal SDcard" people mention in forums (internal memory partition, not an actual card). Simply copying from windows explorer grabs the files, but not with the correct directory structure. Best to use adb pull with the -a option to keep file attributes.
- Samsung memos, bookmarks (from the samsung internet browser), and contacts are not stored in /data/media. Rather these are in data/data. in the following places (absolute directories):
- memos: data/data/com.samsung.android.app.memo/databases/memo.db
- bookmarks: data/data/com.sec.android.app.sbrowser/databases/SBrowser.db
- contacts: data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db
It seems TWRP does not back these up -I could be wrong though. Samsung's own utilities probably do but I have never used them. I don't know if google stores these either since I haven't used its backups to check.
I am still unclear of exactly what TWRO backup backs up. I understand that the /media folder is not included (downloads, photos, music etc..) but are app settings in data/data included?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All app data is backed up in a twrp backup
If you were to restore a twrp backup your phone would be in exactly the same position as when the backup was created including app settings & data
The common partitions it will backup are system data cache & boot (kernel) - it can also backup (if included in the twrp.fstab) modem/efs & other partitions
The only things a twrp backup doesn't backup is personal files eg downloads music pictures documents etc
You can make a twrp backup & extract it on a pc - I'm sure there are guides which explain how to do this

TheFixItMan said:
All app data is backed up in a twrp backup
If you were to restore a twrp backup your phone would be in exactly the same position as when the backup was created including app settings & data
The common partitions it will backup are system data cache & boot (kernel) - it can also backup (if included in the twrp.fstab) modem/efs & other partitions
The only things a twrp backup doesn't backup is personal files eg downloads music pictures documents etc
You can make a twrp backup & extract it on a pc - I'm sure there are guides which explain how to do this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent. Well I've manually (well, same directory structure) backed up pretty much everything I could think of anyway so even if the phone goes south, the media files are safe. I'll do a TWRP backup on my PC as well (just for easy restoring if I need to) I'm assuming this can only be done via adb? as the UI only gives options for internal or SDcard storage - which is another option.
I have some more questions as I am not sure how to proceed. Yes, everything is (or can be) backed up. But the phone still freezes which may or may not be a hardware issue. So I am stuck deciding:
1) looking for logs to attempt to diagnose the problem. Probably won't get me anywhere. logcat doesn't seem to work.
2) Just performing a factory reset from TWRP. Unsure exactly what this resets. Firmware? OS? wipes all apps?
3) Using Odin to flash stock firmware (I only have one large md5 file from updato.com for use with "AP"). Does this wipe apps and data? (I'm not including media files here).
In some forums people claim that user data (as in apps and app data) isn't wiped by using ODIN to update the firmware, others say it wipes absolutely everything. Whilst I have back ups I'd obviously prefer it to keep the apps and their data, assuming they aren't the cause of the problem. Apologies for so many questions, I probably don't need to know all the details, but I'm curious and cautious.

BuriedCode said:
Excellent. Well I've manually (well, same directory structure) backed up pretty much everything I could think of anyway so even if the phone goes south, the media files are safe. I'll do a TWRP backup on my PC as well (just for easy restoring if I need to) I'm assuming this can only be done via adb? as the UI only gives options for internal or SDcard storage - which is another option.
I have some more questions as I am not sure how to proceed. Yes, everything is (or can be) backed up. But the phone still freezes which may or may not be a hardware issue. So I am stuck deciding:
1) looking for logs to attempt to diagnose the problem. Probably won't get me anywhere. logcat doesn't seem to work.
2) Just performing a factory reset from TWRP. Unsure exactly what this resets. Firmware? OS? wipes all apps?
3) Using Odin to flash stock firmware (I only have one large md5 file from updato.com for use with "AP"). Does this wipe apps and data? (I'm not including media files here).
In some forums people claim that user data (as in apps and app data) isn't wiped by using ODIN to update the firmware, others say it wipes absolutely everything. Whilst I have back ups I'd obviously prefer it to keep the apps and their data, assuming they aren't the cause of the problem. Apologies for so many questions, I probably don't need to know all the details, but I'm curious and cautious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odin firmware images (unless custom made) do not wipe user data apps & settings however unless it's the same firmware as already on the phone it will most likely bootloop until you do a factory reset in stock recovery
This will erase all app data & settings but not internal storage unless the device was encrypted in which case all internal storage will be erased
For twrp if you want to flash a custom rom
If encrypted format data (option on right of wipe menu) This will erase all internal storage - then restart to recovery
Then once encryption removed or not encrypted to begin with
Wipe system (previous rom)
Wipe data (app data settings)
Wipe cache
Flash rom
Flash gapps
Flash root (optional)
Restart

So it looks like a firmware flash with ODIN is the way to go. As I've loaded on TWRP I can no longer see the firmware version that was on the stock recovery screen to check if I have the right image downloaded. Is there a way to see the firmware version from TWRP? I tried
Code:
adb shell getprop
Which had [ro.boot.bootloader]: [G900FXXU1CRH1] that I'm guessing is the firmware version, although the hit on sammobile doesn't mention the carrier (vodafone). If I search by region and carrier, I get a different version.
Update: Just tried to backup to a blank SD micro. It freezes and restarts 2% into it every time. Tried:
Code:
adb backup " -all -noshared -f "C:\phone backup.ab" "
And it said "now unlock your device to confirm action" but TWRP gave no such dialog. At this rate I can't actually do a proper backup of anything. Is there another way? I don't have enough space on internal storage. I guess I could try USB storage (USB memory stick with adapter).

BuriedCode said:
So it looks like a firmware flash with ODIN is the way to go. As I've loaded on TWRP I can no longer see the firmware version that was on the stock recovery screen to check if I have the right image downloaded. Is there a way to see the firmware version from TWRP? I tried
Code:
adb shell getprop
Which had [ro.boot.bootloader]: [G900FXXU1CRH1] that I'm guessing is the firmware version, although the hit on sammobile doesn't mention the carrier (vodafone). If I search by region and carrier, I get a different version.
Update: Just tried to backup to a blank SD micro. It freezes and restarts 2% into it every time. Tried:
Code:
adb backup " -all -noshared -f "C:\phone backup.ab" "
And it said "now unlock your device to confirm action" but TWRP gave no such dialog. At this rate I can't actually do a proper backup of anything. Is there another way? I don't have enough space on internal storage. I guess I could try USB storage (USB memory stick with adapter).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just backup to internal storage or SD card & transfer to pc
Backup is stored in eg sdcard/twrp
The firmware you need is
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/galaxy-s5/SM-G900F/BTU/download/G900FXXU1CRH1/233034/
Free downloads on sammobile will be back on Monday or find an alternative site

TheFixItMan said:
Just backup to internal storage or SD card & transfer to pc
Backup is stored in eg sdcard/twrp
The firmware you need is
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/galaxy-s5/SM-G900F/BTU/download/G900FXXU1CRH1/233034/
Free downloads on sammobile will be back on Monday or find an alternative site
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't backup to SD card because it freezes at 2%. And using "adb backup " -f "C:\mybackup.ab" --twrp boot system data" " asks me to unlock my device - but TWRP doesn't show anything. On top of all that, it seems sammobile is under maintainance so I cannot download that firmware file until Monday Probably a good thing as it gives me a couple of days to keep trying to back up. Right now it gets into TWRP from recovery boot about one in 6 times. I'm out of idea's.

You can probably tell the frustration is real. Right now, I cannot use adb or twrp to backup onto internal storage (no space), the SDcard (crashes 2% into it, even with a blank SD card). It doesn't seem to crash whilst in TWRP, and I managed to pull the media folder off use "adb pull" so it seems it doesn't crash when using ADB commands.
So my only option before attempting to flash firmware is to make a backup via adb. However, I cannot get this to work at all. "adb backup --twrp" prompts me to unlock my phone, but the phone just displays the TWRP menu still. "adb backup -f "c:\backADB.ab" -noshared --twrp system boot data" tells me "adb: unable to open file c:\backADB.ab". Using simply "adb backup" puts me in the backup menu in TWRP, but then I can only change storage to internal or SDcard.
So either we can't yet backup to PC via adb and the TWRP documentation is out of date, or bugged. I'm on windows so I don't know if that makes it impossible - I just want to be able to get a backup on my PC's harddrive(s). Am I missing something with ADB?
Edit: it seems to now attempt to back up with "adb backup -f "c:\mybackup" --twrp system boot data" however.. this starts to back up and crashes at... 2%.

Just flashed the linked firmware with Odin after managing to get my apps backed up with my samsung account (the phone didn't crash for 15 minutes!). It cycled through "installing system update" restarting several times before hanging on the startup screen. I then pulled the battery, booted into stock recovery performed a factory reset (TWRP was gone). Now it is back in bootloop.
I installed TWRP again to use the file browser and my data has indeed been wiped (RIP). So what now? I could just let it boot loop and hope that it somehow gets back into android - it did that before, maybe one in 15 times. But I've done pretty much everything that has been recommended.

Rather than leave this thread hanging, I might as well post progress. After many *many* reboots interrupting the phone updating apps, it seems stable. It still occasionally crashes, but I can now make it crash and restart on demand by trying to install snapchat. It downloads it successfully and about a minute of "installing" the phone restarts, and reboots about 15 times before finally booting properly. I installed several other apps, none of which restarted the phone.
So, I'm going to get a new phone, and it seems that most things are backed up (please note, samsung doesn't back up contacts, shealth data, or splanner data despite claiming they do so). But I am curious as to what this problem could be. I have no experience debugging phone problems, and I realize it could be many things, but is there a way of checking the phones RAM (unlikely) or internal memory (flash, = more likely) for corruption? I may run a stress test to check if its power, CPU, or hover heating. If it passes that then it has to be memory usage.
Update: Today it only lasts a few minutes before it restarts. This is without any app updates - although I cannot be sure because I don't know whats going on in the background. This happens with, or without the SD card, and with both the new and old battery. I don't know where to start debugging. Any pointers?