I am currently on CM10.1 and have been considering testing other ROMs for the Nexus 4. All ROM flash guidelines ask that I wipe everything and do a factory reset before I flash the ROM.
My question is does doing a data wipe permanently erase all data on the phone? Including installed apps, app data (game saves, whatapp chat logs, etc), SMS and Contact information, gallery files, wifi passwords, etc. Or is it just some ROM specific data. More importantly, if it is more than just ROM data, is this data gone forever or is it synced with the google cloud and is simply synced over the internet once the phone is setup with the correct google account again? If it is synced, what data is synced? I presume at least contact information is synced with the cloud but what about the rest.
I could find any clear information on what exactly wiping data entailed and what could be the expected unrecoverable losses possible. Also can I just take a backup of the data using some app (Titanium backup?)/nandroid backup and restore the data once the new ROM is installed?
Factory reset will, just as the name states, bring it back to the state is was when you first got it.
So yes, every app and data of it will be lost. This includes contacts, wifi passwords etc.
Your contacts, wifi passwords etc will be synced to the google servers, if you chose to do that when you set up your phone for the first time.
However, it will not wipe your sd card, so all your photos and music will be save.
I'd suggest you make a backup of your WhatsApp history, this way when you re-install it you will be prompted if you want to restore the messages from the backup.
Hope this helped!
EDIT: It is not suggested to restore data from a titanium backup, since this can generate problems.
mumaster20 said:
Factory reset will, just as the name states, bring it back to the state is was when you first got it.
So yes, every app and data of it will be lost. This includes contacts, wifi passwords etc.
Your contacts, wifi passwords etc will be synced to the google servers, if you chose to do that when you set up your phone for the first time.
However, it will not wipe your sd card, so all your photos and music will be save.
I'd suggest you make a backup of your WhatsApp history, this way when you re-install it you will be prompted if you want to restore the messages from the backup.
Hope this helped!
EDIT: It is not suggested to restore data from a titanium backup, since this can generate problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any difference between delete cache and data and doing a factory reset?
While doing a cache wipe, only files from the Cache partition are being deleted. These files were saved by your phone to use as cache. (Think of it as your browser history. if you wipe that, only certain files will be deleted, while the app itself won't be touched)
While doing a factory reset everything will be wiped, including the cache partition. Excluding the sdcard ofcourse.
mumaster20 said:
Factory reset will, just as the name states, bring it back to the state is was when you first got it.
So yes, every app and data of it will be lost. This includes contacts, wifi passwords etc.
Your contacts, wifi passwords etc will be synced to the google servers, if you chose to do that when you set up your phone for the first time.
However, it will not wipe your sd card, so all your photos and music will be save.
I'd suggest you make a backup of your WhatsApp history, this way when you re-install it you will be prompted if you want to restore the messages from the backup.
Hope this helped!
EDIT: It is not suggested to restore data from a titanium backup, since this can generate problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
one we wiped our rom using any tool, is it possible to load the android os without installing any rom?
madhan116 said:
one we wiped our rom using any tool, is it possible to load the android os without installing any rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooh, old subject haha.
The android OS IS your rom, so to have a full stock android rom, like you had when you first turned on your nexus 4, you need to flash the factory image provided by Google. Link to factory images
If you dont know how to flash these files, efrant has a great guide on how to do this. Link to the guide
thanks for ur info
mumaster20 said:
Ooh, old subject haha.
The android OS IS your rom, so to have a full stock android rom, like you had when you first turned on your nexus 4, you need to flash the factory image provided by Google. Link to factory images
If you dont know how to flash these files, efrant has a great guide on how to do this. Link to the guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first of all my product is not nexus.. its alwinner a10, i have not installed any custom ROM yet. only the stock ROM remains itself in my tablet now in this situation what will be the result of wiping rom??????? ( As i am a newbie this question arises)
madhan116 said:
first of all my product is not nexus.. its alwinner a10, i have not installed any custom ROM yet. only the stock ROM remains itself in my tablet now in this situation what will be the result of wiping rom??????? ( As i am a newbie this question arises)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By wiping rom, did you mean to wipe system off your device? If that is what you meant there, then your device won't boot after that because there is no OS installed. To clear your confusion factory reset only set your device back to the default settings when you buy it. Means it will wipe your downloaded apps, cache, saved data, contacts, messages etc.. Some stock recovery doesn't wipe your internal sd card when you performed factory reset (means all your pics and music are still there) while in some other erases all and you will be left with nothing..just like how you first received the device from store.
Further down, if you flashed any custom rom on your device and you do a factory reset. It won't wipe away the custom rom that you installed, it will only set it back to the rom default settings. To get it back to the stock manufacturer rom, you must flash the official rom released by your device manufacturer. I hope this will clear your confusion.
thanks
arffrhn said:
By wiping rom, did you mean to wipe system off your device? If that is what you meant there, then your device won't boot after that because there is no OS installed. To clear your confusion factory reset only set your device back to the default settings when you buy it. Means it will wipe your downloaded apps, cache, saved data, contacts, messages etc.. Some stock recovery doesn't wipe your internal sd card when you performed factory reset (means all your pics and music are still there) while in some other erases all and you will be left with nothing..just like how you first received the device from store.
Further down, if you flashed any custom rom on your device and you do a factory reset. It won't wipe away the custom rom that you installed, it will only set it back to the rom default settings. To get it back to the stock manufacturer rom, you must flash the official rom released by your device manufacturer. I hope this will clear your confusion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for ur nice reply.. now it has wiped out my confusion
Anyhow now my problem is regarding flash, i dont know whether i could share here so included a link...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2542145&highlight=live+suit+flash+error
madhan116 said:
thanks for ur nice reply.. now it has wiped out my confusion
Anyhow now my problem is regarding flash, i dont know whether i could share here so included a link...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2542145&highlight=live+suit+flash+error
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. As for your query, I do not own that particular device so I can't help you with that. Sorry mate..
mumaster20 said:
Factory reset will, just as the name states, bring it back to the state is was when you first got it.
So yes, every app and data of it will be lost. This includes contacts, wifi passwords etc.
Your contacts, wifi passwords etc will be synced to the google servers, if you chose to do that when you set up your phone for the first time.
However, it will not wipe your sd card, so all your photos and music will be save.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am bumping the post instead of openning a new one - because it is the same question.
You wrote that Factory reset will not wipe Photos, Music etc.
Did you mean that if I saved it on external SD? Because in Nexus 4 there is no option to add SD card.
My question:
1. In my nexus 4, when doing factory reset - it erases EVERYTHING include Photos and music. so please help me understand.... cause I am confused. Does it reset everything or not?
2. In nexus 4, where is the option to Wipe data? I see only "Factory reset". In recovery console?
3. Any differences between Factory reset from the settings, to wipe data from Recovery?
thanks!
shakta said:
I am bumping the post instead of openning a new one - because it is the same question.
You wrote that Factory reset will not wipe Photos, Music etc.
Did you mean that if I saved it on external SD? Because in Nexus 4 there is no option to add SD card.
My question:
1. In my nexus 4, when doing factory reset - it erases EVERYTHING include Photos and music. so please help me understand.... cause I am confused. Does it reset everything or not?
2. In nexus 4, where is the option to Wipe data? I see only "Factory reset". In recovery console?
3. Any differences between Factory reset from the settings, to wipe data from Recovery?
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. We do not have external sd in nexus 4. There are 2 types of recoveries; stock and custom. Stock recovery is what you get when flashing factory images while custom recoveries are twrp/cwm. In stock recovery, factory reset delete everything on your device. Everything in your internal as well. It will wipe clean your device. For custom recovery, it won't clear your internal sd storage so your photos/music/docs/backups are intact. It will only delete data partition which stores your downloaded apps. I hope you are clear on that now.
2. Factory reset=wipe data. In every recovery, it's the same.
3. No, it uses the same command so basically there is no difference. Depends on the recovery you use, factory reset on stock recovery deletes everything while on custom recovery sd card is still intact.
The answer that explained everything for me - is that there is a different between wiping data from Stock recovery to wiping from Custom, so now i get what you mean!
Error loading
Hi! I recently use CWM and use wipe data/factory rest but now My HTC Salas not loading till standby screen and get stuck in errors not responding and force close option please guide how to rescue my device?
ansarhassan4 said:
Hi! I recently use CWM and use wipe data/factory rest but now My HTC Salas not loading till standby screen and get stuck in errors not responding and force close option please guide how to rescue my device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would start by opening a new thread in the relevant section of this forum. You are hijacking a thread started well over a year ago and your issue has no relevance to the OP's issue.
Start here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/
Flash rom and keep apps and data
Hi. Is it possible not to factory reset/ wipe data when flashing a newer rom? The reason I am asking is because I want to flash Lollipop on my Note 3 as Samsung keeps forgetting to send it to me OTA or via Kies. But I don't want to lose all apps and data. Thanks in advance.
arffrhn said:
By wiping rom, did you mean to wipe system off your device? If that is what you meant there, then your device won't boot after that because there is no OS installed. To clear your confusion factory reset only set your device back to the default settings when you buy it. Means it will wipe your downloaded apps, cache, saved data, contacts, messages etc.. Some stock recovery doesn't wipe your internal sd card when you performed factory reset (means all your pics and music are still there) while in some other erases all and you will be left with nothing..just like how you first received the device from store.
Further down, if you flashed any custom rom on your device and you do a factory reset. It won't wipe away the custom rom that you installed, it will only set it back to the rom default settings. To get it back to the stock manufacturer rom, you must flash the official rom released by your device manufacturer. I hope this will clear your confusion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey. I have 1 question. I have pictures, music and videos on my Internal Memory, and I don't want to lose it (I didn't back it up anywhere and I don't have an SD card). Will Wipe Data/Factory Reset delete those stuff, or just apps, settings, etc?
I'm using S4 Mini i9192. I also have Philz Touch Recovery.
Shawn.Killer said:
Hey. I have 1 question. I have pictures, music and videos on my Internal Memory, and I don't want to lose it (I didn't back it up anywhere and I don't have an SD card). Will Wipe Data/Factory Reset delete those stuff, or just apps, settings, etc?
I'm using S4 Mini i9192. I also have Philz Touch Recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not used Clockwork recovery for a very long time now so I don't know how it works nowadays. But last I used it, factory reset in cwm (philz is a modified version of cwm) does not result in complete wipe. It will leave out the sd card partition. But like I said, it was very long time ago. Make a backup of them if it is really important. Well, in my opinion, everything needs backup. Even things in your computer needs a backup.
p/s: Try to ask this in S4 thread. Here, we (nexus 4 users) mostly use twrp as cwm is discontinued for quite some time now.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
arffrhn said:
I have not used Clockwork recovery for a very long time now so I don't know how it works nowadays. But last I used it, factory reset in cwm (philz is a modified version of cwm) does not result in complete wipe. It will leave out the sd card partition. But like I said, it was very long time ago. Make a backup of them if it is really important. Well, in my opinion, everything needs backup. Even things in your computer needs a backup.
p/s: Try to ask this in S4 thread. Here, we (nexus 4 users) mostly use twrp as cwm is discontinued for quite some time now.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but did it delete your internal memory?
Shawn.Killer said:
Thanks, but did it delete your internal memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it does not. But that was long before.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Hi guys,
I've flashed the last 4.3 Germany ROM on my i9505 and everithink is ok/official including know (0x0)...
Now I'd like to cleanup and restore to the factory settings my S4 but I'm not sure that "restore to factory setting" in the options will do exactly what I'd like. If I'm not wrong it doesn't delete all my data in the sotrage. Am I wrong?
How can I be sure to had cleand up all my stuff without ODIN reflash and/or modified recopvery? I don't want to trigger the knox....
re: wiping phone
Markino said:
Hi guys,
I've flashed the last 4.3 Germany ROM on my i9505 and everithink is ok/official including know (0x0)...
Now I'd like to cleanup and restore to the factory settings my S4 but I'm not sure that "restore to factory setting" in the options will do exactly what I'd like. If I'm not wrong it doesn't delete all my data in the sotrage. Am I wrong?
How can I be sure to had cleand up all my stuff without ODIN reflash and/or modified recopvery? I don't want to trigger the knox....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First be sure to remove your external sdcard if you have one in the phone.
Then turn the phone on normally (no odin, no recovery and no reflash).
Then go into settings>accounts>backup and reset> then click on the very
last entry on the accounts screen which says: "Factory data reset".
Doing that will wipe EVERYTHING including email accounts/emails
phone numbers, user flashed or installed apps, games and so on.
It will also wipe any pictures, videos, documents, music files and mms.
After doing the above you can be assured that the phone is in stock
condition and has nothing personal in it.
Have a great day!
Misterjunky said:
First be sure to remove your external sdcard if you have one in the phone.
Then turn the phone on normally (no odin, no recovery and no reflash).
Then go into settings>accounts>backup and reset> then click on the very
last entry on the accounts screen which says: "Factory data reset".
Doing that will wipe EVERYTHING including email accounts/emails
phone numbers, user flashed or installed apps, games and so on.
It will also wipe any pictures, videos, documents, music files and mms.
After doing the above you can be assured that the phone is in stock
condition and has nothing personal in it.
Have a great day!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
On my last phone I've made it but I've found that on internal sdcard there was still some app data and folder and when I've installed some app the settings was still there..... strange!
Markino said:
Thanks!
On my last phone I've made it but I've found that on internal sdcard there was still some app data and folder and when I've installed some app the settings was still there..... strange!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you will have the same with the method above.
not 100% if stock recovery has this, but besides the factory reset you have to format the internal data. It works from custom recoveries for sure.
as an alternative, you can manually delete all the folders in internal card and do the factory reset again.
of course, the external card you either remove or format aswell (from phone menu or recovery).
after i test the pacrom and restored my previous rom, now i cannot download anymore files. maybe due to mounting problem of the internal sdcard... only the playstore can download...
ill try aolving these via odin but hope someone can help me without the odin
You didn't give us nearly enough information to know for certain what is going on. You may be running afoul of the Kitkat SD permissions that limit apps to a single folder. Or you may have broken app paths, outdated cache information, simple corruption or even something else altogether..
Restore a valid backup if you have one. If not, then that is something that you should be doing in the future to avoid this type of problem. Some things to try in the alternative would be wiping the system cache from recovery mode. Failing that, go to the application manager in the settings menu and try clearing the cache and data for a given app. And failing that, reinstall the app.
If you have more serious issues that aren't resolved by the above steps, then it will be hard to discern what happened unless you can give us a detailed, step by step description of all the changes you made. A situation where a valid backup would be the best way to recover. If wiping the caches doesn't work, you'd probably be best to simply start over and write a full stock firmware image to your phone with Odin, followed by a factory data reset.
.
after coming from CM based rom my internal memory is read only..thats the problem but anyways thanks for the advice.. i solved it already by going odin
So I think I may have gotten maleware from trying to update my pornhub app. Yea yea I know I know but its that time of the month for my wife and well the rest isnt needed lol. Honestly im not even sure if thats what caused it as ive had the app for about a year now and never had a problem. I did download some new keyboard & themes before all this started so those might be the culprit though I doubt it. Now all of a sudden the phone is installing so many random apps, multiple lock screens, is resetting itself, freezing, and acting all types of weird. Its not just porn related stuff its installing either im getting stuff for clash of clans, travelocity, money something, solitaire, etc. I was able to get it hooked up to my computer to try and manually remove stuff but im not finding certain apps like the travelocity & solitaire and going through phones app manager doesnt allow me to uninstall them even though they are present. I am also seeing little android icons next to some things which are named pornclub which is what makes me think it was the pornhub app.
Please for the love of everything help me get my phone back to working normally. Would flashing the phone work since a factory reset did nothing? I did put the phone in safe mode and was able to clear the cache of some of the apps which seemed to have taken them out but it did nothing for others even though there were no uninstall options.
Did you reset using stock recovery? Sometimes, stock recovery is needed to wipe data, cache.
Engriks Malware ?
Muintir said:
Would flashing the phone work since a factory reset did nothing? I did put the phone in safe mode and was able to clear the cache of some of the apps which seemed to have taken them out but it did nothing for others even though there were no uninstall options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use the odin tool to reflash every thing. If it is a virus I'm 99% sure that'll get it.
Flashing with Odin will not always wipe the data partition; therefore, it is a good idea to perform a factory reset before booting the newly-installed rom for the first time.
audit13 said:
Did you reset using stock recovery? Sometimes, stock recovery is needed to wipe data, cache.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Malware in system files >> you can't Remove it when you reset wipe data
Asadullah said:
Use the odin tool to reflash every thing. If it is a virus I'm 99% sure that'll get it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i want reflash my phone plz >> sgh-i337
audit13 said:
Flashing with Odin will not always wipe the data partition; therefore, it is a good idea to perform a factory reset before booting the newly-installed rom for the first time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i want reflash my phone plz >> sgh-i337
i want to repartition my phone to install a new rom for my device >> Samsung sgh-i337
Usually, partitioning is required if Odin can't pull the partition table from the phone.
Which bootloader is on the i337? Is the phone the att version of the s4?
Did you delete the folders on your phone's internal storage before you did a factory reset? Sometimes it doesn't delete everything.
I'd start by plugging the phone back into the computer, delete all the folders and files on the internal storage and do the factory reset again. See if that helps. I'd also make sure to not have the phone restore apps when you do the initial startup.
Muintir said:
So I think I may have gotten maleware from trying to update my pornhub app. Yea yea I know I know but its that time of the month for my wife and well the rest isnt needed lol. Honestly im not even sure if thats what caused it as ive had the app for about a year now and never had a problem. I did download some new keyboard & themes before all this started so those might be the culprit though I doubt it. Now all of a sudden the phone is installing so many random apps, multiple lock screens, is resetting itself, freezing, and acting all types of weird. Its not just porn related stuff its installing either im getting stuff for clash of clans, travelocity, money something, solitaire, etc. I was able to get it hooked up to my computer to try and manually remove stuff but im not finding certain apps like the travelocity & solitaire and going through phones app manager doesnt allow me to uninstall them even though they are present. I am also seeing little android icons next to some things which are named pornclub which is what makes me think it was the pornhub app.
Please for the love of everything help me get my phone back to working normally. Would flashing the phone work since a factory reset did nothing? I did put the phone in safe mode and was able to clear the cache of some of the apps which seemed to have taken them out but it did nothing for others even though there were no uninstall options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi! I have too such problem. Only I don't know that my children set. The only way to get rid of a virus it to reinstall completely the Android. You need to pass in a subject about your phone and to esteem as to reinstall the Android.