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I have just recently downloaded Titanium Backup in order to save my apps because I want to try new ROMs that say to do full wipes including EXT wipes. I was just curious what the proper way to use the program to restore apps was. Also, if Titanium Backup saves to your sd card and you do an EXT wipe, won't that delete all of your saved data? How does it restore? I hope this question isnt on the forum somewhere, I tried searching and couldnt quite find the answer i was looking for.
Thanks for the help. You guys on here have been lifesavers.
Hi,
Okay so first Titanium backup will back up your system settings and your applications and does a fine job at it too! When you wipe your Ext2/3/4 partition all your doing is cleaning off any data held in it. This does not effect your fat 32 partition which is where all your stuff is (pictures, albums, films, ringtones etc) I haven't deleted my fat32 partition ever as this never needs touching really. Apps2sd runs from your Ext partiton so wiping will kill all your apps but this is where Titanium comes in and as it saves to the fat32 partition you have no worries wiping. Also suggest backing up on a PC, I do once a week and saved me a few headaches
Open Titanium and hit menu, then batch. This will bring up a list of options to 'Run' backup or restore. I would strongly suggest also to donate $3.99 for the paid version with the hyper shell.
Anything else you need help with?
Nope. Thanks man. I just needed a few things cleared up before I went ahead and wiped my ext. You were a great help.
No problem, glad to have helped
you say it saves system settings...
so i have about 30 ringtones set to specific contacts, if i wipe/flash a new rom.
restore using titanium backup. Will all those ringtones be set back to the proper contacts automatically with TTB? cuz its a pain in the *** setting them each new rom
i tried mybackup pro a long time ago and it didn't do this which is why i don't waste my time with that app. (that may be changed now, it's been about 8 months)
would I be able to Restore my backup if I have flashed a new rom without problems?
I'm having problems with Titanium Backup. I made backup of a lot of apps before flashing some new stuff to my Galaxy S, but now when I try to restore them it just gets stuck. At first there's that little window saying restoring, but that disappears and it seems like everything is fine. However, when I try to restore next app it just says that a process is already running and it stays that way until I kill it via Autokiller. The app gets installed so that's fine, but the problem is that I would really like to just run a batch-operation and not have to kill the Titanium-process for every app i have back-up of...
Any solutions good people of XDA?
check at the new version, it has an alternative restore mode that you need to enable for it to work on the galaxy s
Another restore question
I installed Titanium backup on my Galaxy S Captivate yesterday, did a batch backup of "all user apps + System Data" in the list it showed the bloatware ATT apps which I wanted to uninstall but with the option of reinstalling them if I ever needed to bring the phone back to ATT.
I did a test uninstall of one of the market apps and then did a restore and it worked fine. Then I tried to un installed one of the ATT apps, which worked but when I tried to restore it by clicking on the crossed out app at the bottom of the list, there is no option to restore it, just delete.
Did I do something wrong with the backup or am I not restoring it properly? my test worked fine so I thought I had it figured out but obviously I am doing something wrong.
any help would be appreciated.
thanks!
Similar problem with no luck at reinstalling Att apps. I accidently deleted google talk and now cannot download new apps.
I have a similar question to the OP.
If I use the Master Clear or whatever is called to restore my phone to stock...that is supposed to delete the internal SD Card so, if I were to copy the Titanium Back Up folder to my PC then copy it back to the SD card after the clearing is done...would that be enough to restore all the games and apps?
I have titanium backup stored in sdcard, this backup is settings/wallpaper, is possible to extract from this file only wallpaper, without restoring all backup to the phone??
My news app/widget not working on MY HTC DHD even after several reboot/restart. So I decided to back up the apps and widget trough titanium backup and uninstall the app+widget. After reinstalling the apps/widget. the news app is working again but the widget, I cant find it in widget menus when I tried to add it to home screen.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
**deleted**
Also have a question about this program
It's restores my apps great. Very happy about it. But when you have installed ur apps back.
When I go to the android market they are not listed in my apps.
Though when i go and look for the app in the store it says installed. Yet can't check the allow automatic update checkbox.
Hope I make sense???
So I can't update it basically???Or when there is an update it will show up in my apps ???
My SD card was fried last night... everything gone. Good thing I backed up everything onto my laptop last week. Got a new SD card and copied everything over from the laptop. When I go into TB app, it doesnt show what I copied over. SHows I have no apps in memory... I made sure to copy everything into the "Titanium Backup" folder in my SD card. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
eezdva said:
Also have a question about this program
It's restores my apps great. Very happy about it. But when you have installed ur apps back.
When I go to the android market they are not listed in my apps.
Though when i go and look for the app in the store it says installed. Yet can't check the allow automatic update checkbox.
Hope I make sense???
So I can't update it basically???Or when there is an update it will show up in my apps ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happened to me as well. Go into the "more" option thru Titanium and select the Market Doctor. This should link your apps back up with the Market. Also, sometimes simply installing an app thru the Market and/or a reboot will get my installed apps to show up properly.
OK thanks. Will try it out.
eezdva said:
OK thanks. Will try it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hope that worked, but just in case, there's another way. Once in Titanium, click backup/restore, and then scroll to your desired app. Long press the app and then click the option to "attach to market (forced)."
Market Doctor - Amazon Market
I installed a new ROM and restored my apps with TiBu. I was having some syncing problems in the Android Market so I ran Market Doctor. The problem is that I did not know to de-select the Amazon sourced apps so 47 of them got linked to the Android Market. I have since manually de-linked (long press) each of those apps solving most of the problem but they still show up in the Market list but under the 'Not Installed' section at the bottom. Is there a way to permanently break the link? I am concerned about having to deal with it in the future. Maybe re-run Market Doctor following the proper de-select process?
I have read that when going to a different rom to do a full wipe.
So clearly if you want to keep your apps you back them up and recover them with titanium backup, but why is it advised to not restore the Data of the apps?
How else would I keep game scores and settings and such?
Thanks
restoring the data for the user apps is fine, don't restore the system data...
Wond3r said:
I have read that when going to a different rom to do a full wipe.
So clearly if you want to keep your apps you back them up and recover them with titanium backup, but why is it advised to not restore the Data of the apps?
How else would I keep game scores and settings and such?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that would be a bit of misinformation that gets spread around.....
its fine to restore user apps+data. i have been doing it for a long time with every device i have. swapping between devices and all.
do a batch restore MISSING apps+data
unselect anything that might be blur/sense/touchwiz specific (based on the phone you are using)
run the batch and reboot
verify you are not having any FCs on your apps
if you do a batch restore of just user apps+data (and not the MISSING option) you will get tons of issues.
it is not advised to use Titanium Backup for things like text messages, contacts, phone logs, etc. (while possible it will work just fine, i have seen lots more issues trying to restore those from rom to rom rather than just user apps.)
again. use the MISSING APPS option in the batch restore of Titanium Backup
i have been doing it for over a year on many different devices and i even share my titanium backup folder between different phones, with NO issues at all. and i typically flash several times a week on several different devices.
Wond3r said:
I have read that when going to a different rom to do a full wipe.
So clearly if you want to keep your apps you back them up and recover them with titanium backup, but why is it advised to not restore the Data of the apps?
How else would I keep game scores and settings and such?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is advised to do full wipe, if you install a rom.
And if you want to keep your settings, games scores etc, you use Titanium Backup.
Titanium Backup is your friend in those cases..
What is not adviced, is installing a Rom, without wiping your data.. In that way, you keep for example data of apps and games, of a froyo rom, to a gingerbread rom..
Rom to Rom differs(even in same android version), thats why you full wipe, and then TiBu saves you by restoring them, to the new rom's enviroment..
Edit: Agree with others.. I was typing on atrix, and since i wrote this, they already answered!
Also in atrix, NEVER restore FINGERPRINTS backup..
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Pirateghost said:
that would be a bit of misinformation that gets spread around.....
its fine to restore user apps+data. i have been doing it for a long time with every device i have. swapping between devices and all.
do a batch restore MISSING apps+data
unselect anything that might be blur/sense/touchwiz specific (based on the phone you are using)
run the batch and reboot
verify you are not having any FCs on your apps
if you do a batch restore of just user apps+data (and not the MISSING option) you will get tons of issues.
it is not advised to use Titanium Backup for things like text messages, contacts, phone logs, etc. (while possible it will work just fine, i have seen lots more issues trying to restore those from rom to rom rather than just user apps.)
again. use the MISSING APPS option in the batch restore of Titanium Backup
i have been doing it for over a year on many different devices and i even share my titanium backup folder between different phones, with NO issues at all. and i typically flash several times a week on several different devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That explains it. Ive seen MANY posts where users tell other users to restore apps but not restore data but dont specify they mean system data and not app data!
Also, when people talk of a full wipe, do they mean even deleting the contents of the internal storage (like photos and such?)
This would be for going from one ROM to another ROM, both GB
No they are talking about doing a "wipe data/factory reset" in CMW and not physically deleting your internal sdcard. if you delete your sdcard then you will wipe out data that you need including your titanium backups
morepower71 said:
No they are talking about doing a "wipe data/factory reset" in CMW and not physically deleting your internal sdcard. if you delete your sdcard then you will wipe out data that you need including your titanium backups
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks ! I always feared that the wipe data/factory reset pretty much deletes all the files on your device like photos and music
The short answer is force closes. Which also can happen from restoring app data, altho it is less likely to happen, it can and it will. But yea def dont restore system data.
Is there any other way of saving game saves?
Wond3r said:
Is there any other way of saving game saves?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use SyncIt or GameOn, you can even back it up manualy with Root Explorer. You should be fine with TiBU, just if you do get a force close you will know why and what to do (delete data and/or uninstall/reinstall).
I am having an issue restoring my app data from titanium backup. The issue first occurred when i switched from a stock ROM to CM7 ICS ROM. When i restored my missing apps+data all of my app data had disappeared. I just started over and didn't worry about it. Then when i switched from CM7 back to a stock rom I received my old apps+data from before i switched to CM7. I read around on the forums that this might be a compatibility issue. So i started to use the setting in the batch menu "Manipulate data and converted my backups to roll back journal mode which says this works with all roms, and started uploading to Dropbox. I recently just switched my Rom from a stock ROM to CM9 ICS. I lost all of my apps again!! and got back all of the app data from when i was using CM7. Could someone please shed some light on what is going on here cause i have no idea. Please let me know if there is anything i can do to get my app data into CM9 from my last stock rom. The stock rom i was using was an old ROM called wet dream.
JonnyCazoid said:
I am having an issue restoring my app data from titanium backup. The issue first occurred when i switched from a stock ROM to CM7 ICS ROM. When i restored my missing apps+data all of my app data had disappeared. I just started over and didn't worry about it. Then when i switched from CM7 back to a stock rom I received my old apps+data from before i switched to CM7. I read around on the forums that this might be a compatibility issue. So i started to use the setting in the batch menu "Manipulate data and converted my backups to roll back journal mode which says this works with all roms, and started uploading to Dropbox. I recently just switched my Rom from a stock ROM to CM9 ICS. I lost all of my apps again!! and got back all of the app data from when i was using CM7. Could someone please shed some light on what is going on here cause i have no idea. Please let me know if there is anything i can do to get my app data into CM9 from my last stock rom. The stock rom i was using was an old ROM called wet dream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stock rom uses a different back up location than cm roms. You will have to manually go find the data backups in tibu. Don't bother having it auto detect, wont work. For example, all my backups were at mnt/emmc/titaniumbackup instead of the stock roms location of mnt/sdcard/titaniumbackup
pre4speed said:
The stock rom uses a different back up location than cm roms. You will have to manually go find the data backups in tibu. Don't bother having it auto detect, wont work. For example, all my backups were at mnt/emmc/titaniumbackup instead of the stock roms location of mnt/sdcard/titaniumbackup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like that was the the problem. I saved my backup on drop box so i just dropped what was on dropbox in my titanium folder and restored it. I now have all of my app data back.
Can someone help me understand when I should use one or the other. Also when is a good time to do it?, before a flash of a custom rom?
I recently performed the bootloader unlock procedure from Adam and after it completed I ran the twrp backup to my sd card. Does that mean I could restore to that backup should verizon send ota and revert the unlock?
Thanks!!!
JRunner01 said:
Can someone help me understand when I should use one or the other. Also when is a good time to do it?, before a flash of a custom rom?
I recently performed the bootloader unlock procedure from Adam and after it completed I ran the twrp backup to my sd card. Does that mean I could restore to that backup should verizon send ota and revert the unlock?
Thanks!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium would be used when you want to backup all of your apps+data, Twrp would be used when you want to back up EVERYTHING apps, messages, pics(on internal sd), basically everything lol. As for verizon sending a ota, I think it's highly unlikely that they can push a ota to our phones now I think the bootloader unlocking and rooting broke all of that. Especially if you run a custom Rom.
Sent from my rooted, and unlocked Vzw note 2 running beans Rom! U mad?
JRunner01 said:
Can someone help me understand when I should use one or the other. Also when is a good time to do it?, before a flash of a custom rom?
I recently performed the bootloader unlock procedure from Adam and after it completed I ran the twrp backup to my sd card. Does that mean I could restore to that backup should verizon send ota and revert the unlock?
Thanks!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium is backing up apps. So lets say you use CleanROM and you want to flash to a newer version cleanly. Use titanium to back up the apps and you will be able to restore them easily on the new rom.
Backing up via TWRP basically means you are backing up EVERYTHING in the rom. So lets use the previous example, uograding from one rom to another. You do a twrp back up and begin to flash the new rom. If anything screws up, you could just restore the twrp back up and everything would go back to normal, back exactly to how your phone was when you made the backup.
Edit: basically a back up in recovery is creating a safe point to come back to if anything goes wrong EVER with your device. There are things that this typenof back up cannot undo however.
Titanium is for apps and that's it. It helps free up space as well as making backups for apps incase on of your apps screws up.
EDIT 2: next time post this type of thing in Q&A and not in general
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda premium
Titanium Backup - Used to back up all of your apps and their data
TWRP - Used to back up the ENTIRE system. Meaning, if anything goes wrong, you can restore a past "save" of your system before the problem.
You can think of it as Titanium Backup would be like copying a MS Word document onto a flash drive and TWRP would be like taking a copy of your entire hard drive.
JRunner01 said:
Can someone help me understand when I should use one or the other. Also when is a good time to do it?, before a flash of a custom rom?
I recently performed the bootloader unlock procedure from Adam and after it completed I ran the twrp backup to my sd card. Does that mean I could restore to that backup should verizon send ota and revert the unlock?
Thanks!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium backup: for backing up apks and their datas, mms and calling history, bookmarks, alarm and wifi settings....i think that's about it. Because your apks keep updating every few days, you should make this backup right before you flash a new rom. Once you retrieve, you don't have to keep this too long.
TWRP backup(aka nandroid): this is just like a saved point when you play a video game. sometimes when you download something, it can alternate other settings and create a mess.....which then may cause your rom to malfunction. At this time, you can flash your nandroid.....it dumps every saved datas, cache, etc etc so that you can go back to your saved point.
Titanium back up- is a app that backs up applications and their data...also has the ability to freeze system apps and create back up .zips of the devices applications.
TWRP back up- is a custom recovery that allows the user to create a back up image... that image will restore the boot image, rom, kernel, data, and cache back to the point of when the back up was created.
It used to be that restoring titanium data from one rom to another was bad. Is this still a recommended no no?
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
Pretty much.
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First thanks to everyone for the replies!!!
Sorry for posting in wrong section.
So I cant use titanium to backup my apps, then to be restored on a custom rom, since I am on what appears to be a stock / rooted rom from Adams unlock procedure? I would have to reinstall them from google / my apps.
My twrp backup would be useful if the custom rom I soon load goes bad any I need to get back to a good state, right?
Also as on reply said, no worries from ota since we are rooted and unlocked? You all agree?
JRunner01 said:
First thanks to everyone for the replies!!!
Sorry for posting in wrong section.
So I cant use titanium to backup my apps, then to be restored on a custom rom, since I am on what appears to be a stock / rooted rom from Adams unlock procedure? I would have to reinstall them from google / my apps.
My twrp backup would be useful if the custom rom I soon load goes bad any I need to get back to a good state, right?
Also as on reply said, no worries from ota since we are rooted and unlocked? You all agree?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes you can use titanium to back up your apps and restore them on a custom rom...just restore the apps without data. you have the rest correct.
I always restore my user apps with data, I just don't do system apps.
pool_shark said:
I always restore my user apps with data, I just don't do system apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great...but when switching between aosp and touchwiz this can cause apps to force close. the op said "custom rom" so i provided a blanket statement covering all bases.
droidstyle said:
great...but when switching between aosp and touchwiz this can cause apps to force close. the op said "custom rom" so i provided a blanket statement covering all bases.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I restored all of my apps user that I used on JBSourcery from my Nexus to my Note II.
I think the main problem some people have with restoring their apps is that they're restoring system apps not just user apps. Sometimes what was a user app on one ROM is a system app on another.
pool_shark said:
I restored all of my apps user that I used on JBSourcery from my Nexus to my Note II.
I think the main problem some people have with restoring their apps is that they're restoring system apps not just user apps. Sometimes what was a user app on one ROM is a system app on another.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that folks get into trouble because of what you posted in your last sentence. This is exactly why I do not recommend it because a new user 99% of the time wont know that. So I simply do not suggest it...now somebody more experienced like yourself is a different story.
pool_shark said:
I restored all of my apps user that I used on JBSourcery from my Nexus to my Note II.
I think the main problem some people have with restoring their apps is that they're restoring system apps not just user apps. Sometimes what was a user app on one ROM is a system app on another.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disagree.
It won't always happen, but problems can and will happen restoring user data. I have seen it a million times and logcat shows it too. When there is a database conflict (the logcat shows this), the app force closes, and the only fix is to clear data for that app, which undoes what you restored. Might as well forgo the irritation and not restore it the first time.
adrynalyne said:
Disagree.
It won't always happen, but problems can and will happen restoring user data. I have seen it a million times and logcat shows it too. When there is a database conflict (the logcat shows this), the app force closes, and the only fix is to clear data for that app, which undoes what you restored. Might as well forgo the irritation and not restore it the first time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has yet to happen to me.
The only time it came close was with better terminal emulator pro. I restored using titanium and it refused to work. Downloaded it from the play store, it worked fine. Then restored over that using titanium and it worked fine.
Anyone have any advice on creating the .zip? Is it even a possibility in TWRP? I used CWR for the longest and am a n00b with TWP. There are only 2 options when creating the update.zip: Edify (Android 1.6+, ClockworkMod 3+) and Amend (Android 1.5, ClockworkMod 2). So which is needed to flash in TWRP?
I'm not interested in creating a .zip of all my apps, just a .zip I can flash in recovery after clean wipe/flashing a new ROM. TIA guys
So I get the fundumental difference between utilizing the 2 methods of backing up but what I don't understand is that if TWRP backup is like taking a snapshot or image of EVERYTHING, why is my backup folder created from a TWRP backup such a small size (2.4GB) when everything on my phone equals way more than that? Is it compressed? I don't remember selecting that option.
airbus318 said:
So I get the fundumental difference between utilizing the 2 methods of backing up but what I don't understand is that if TWRP backup is like taking a snapshot or image of EVERYTHING, why is my backup folder created from a TWRP backup such a small size (2.4GB) when everything on my phone equals way more than that? Is it compressed? I don't remember selecting that option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It only gets /system, /data, and kernel if you don't change the options. It's not getting everything on SD card or internal storage unless you specify that option.
I have been searching for an answer for this question for a couple of days now but have yet to find one, so I decided to go ahead and make a thread for it. What I am wondering, is how to create a backup of all my user data, apps, and app data that I can restore on different roms? I am currently stock rooted, however I have downloaded and wish to flash ARHD Rom, but I don't want to have to re install everything from scratch I just want to be able to click "restore" and have all my apps and data back.
Any Help is greatly appreciated. Thanks Guys.
Pure+ said:
I have been searching for an answer for this question for a couple of days now but have yet to find one, so I decided to go ahead and make a thread for it. What I am wondering, is how to create a backup of all my user data, apps, and app data that I can restore on different roms? I am currently stock rooted, however I have downloaded and wish to flash ARHD Rom, but I don't want to have to re install everything from scratch I just want to be able to click "restore" and have all my apps and data back.
Any Help is greatly appreciated. Thanks Guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because you are not rooted go this route. You do not require root.
1. Use the Helium app and copy the folder it creates onto your computer, it's called "CARBON." This will copy all apps and app data.
2. Use HTC Backup from the app store and backup everything onto dropbox. This will also backup your apps + data. It will be on a cloud storage so no need to push anything to anywhere.
3. Go into your SMS and hit the menu button. Backup all user text messaging. Copy to computer.
now you can report everything to anything.
After you are on your new ROM.
1. Run HTC Backup (comes with rom) and restore everything.
2. Use Helium to restore any missing apps.
3. Restore SMS.
Done.
SlimJ87D said:
Because you are not rooted go this route. You do not require root.
1. Use the Helium app and copy the folder it creates onto your computer, it's called "CARBON." This will copy all apps and app data.
2. Use HTC Backup from the app store and backup everything onto dropbox. This will also backup your apps + data. It will be on a cloud storage so no need to push anything to anywhere.
3. Go into your SMS and hit the menu button. Backup all user text messaging. Copy to computer.
now you can report everything to anything.
After you are on your new ROM.
1. Run HTC Backup (comes with rom) and restore everything.
2. Use Helium to restore any missing apps.
3. Restore SMS.
Done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am rooted, what I'm really wondering now is if I can restore the data portion of my nandroid backup after flashing the new rom or if that will result in a bunch of FC's?
Pure+ said:
I am rooted, what I'm really wondering now is if I can restore the data portion of my nandroid backup after flashing the new rom or if that will result in a bunch of FC's?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Titanium Backup and it can grab apps from a nandroid backup and restore them. navigate for this feature through the options menu.
http://www.guidingtech.com/13501/restore-apps-nandroid-titanium-backup/
Yes, you can flash a clean Rom then restore your data file from a previous backup. the only problem with that is that whatever problems you may have had before, may be present still. Otherwise, it doesn't hurt anything. In fact, both CWM and TWRP allow advanced restore where you can select portions of your back up to restore..one a time. In my opinion, it allows you to see, if a backup fails to restore, where exactly it is having trouble, be it in system, boot, data..etc. I literally just did this, restoring a data backup onto a clean Rom, and so far no issues. I understand what you mean by not wanting to set everything back up. System settings, widgets and app placements. You had the perfect setup and it took you forever to get it that way. Titanium backup and Rom Toolbox don't always restore these things like they claim to do.
Edit: I am finding the hard way with this phone, that unlike my old LG Mytouch, when you flash a firmware upgrade, non OTA push I mean, it doesn't stick to system. It's saved to data. So if you flash a data file from a backup with an older version, your back to that version. With my old phone, we could swap Roms after an update all day, and the baseband and firmware updates would stick every time.
One reason why I chose to buy this device (aside from official Google support) is the overwhelmingly large amount of developer enthusiasm for it. And with that enthusiasm comes a lot of custom ROMs.
I haven't had time to test all of them, but I will - and here's a guide I made that'll hopefully make testing different ROMs easier.
Prerequisites
Before continuing with this guide, make sure that you have:
a LOT of free time, depending on how many ROMs you want to test;
unlocked and rooted your device;
downloaded all the ROMs you want to test;
have installed a good recovery - I would recommend the latest version of TWRP;
common sense.
(OPTIONAL) a spare microSD card of at least 8GB. This'll make everything easier, as you won't have to delete stuff in order to fit all your ZIPs and backups.
Things to remember
Make sure you know how exactly to restore your device to how it was before following this guide.
You should know what you're doing. One small mistake can lead to your device being completely unusable!
You should know what features you're looking for in a ROM. It's never nice to have gone all the way to flash a different ROM, only to discover that feature X doesn't work. Ask questions in the ROM thread, if you like.
You can always ask help from others, should you have any trouble with your device.
When using custom ROMs (or any customization, for that matter), do NOT ask for ETAs. Our developers are doing their work at their own leisure and during their own time, and they don't get their pay from you.
Ready? Let's get going!
Getting started
A good Android user always backs up before doing anything radical to their phone, and that's precisely what we're going to do. There are three ways to go about this:
The easy way
The easy way is through making a Nandroid backup. This is particularly easy to do in TWRP, as all you need to do is reboot into recovery, press Backup, select the partitions you want to back up and whether to compress them, and start backing up. Simple as that.
Pros: Easy to restore your data once you're finished testing ROMs.
Cons: It's somewhat hard to restore individual pieces of data (such as messages and apps) instead of the whole thing.
The (slightly) more complicated way
This way deals with TitaniumBackup, an absolute must-have app for every Android user out there.
With TitaniumBackup, you can choose to back up individual apps (and even update their individual backups). TB isn't limited to backing up/restoring data, though; it can do so much more - remove bloatware, freeze apps you don't use, make a flashable ZIP out of your backups... the list goes on.
Pros: Finer control over what data gets backed up. Very powerful tool in migrating ROMs.
Cons: Somewhat outdated and intimidating interface; and features are reduced without buying the PRO version.
The Google way
This one is the simplest way of all three, though it only works if you have a) GApps and have signed in to your Google account, b) if you've agreed to let Google back your data up when you first set up your device, and c) if you have Settings > Backup & reset > Back up my data enabled.
Google automatically backs up almost all of your data to its servers, ready to be restored when you do a factory reset/switch to a new phone. A list of all data that are backed up can be seen by going to Settings > Accounts > Google > (your email address).
Notable exceptions to the data backed up are messages, which you have to back up yourself - I recommend SMS Backup & Restore for that.
Now that you have your data backed up, let's get flashing.
Flashing
Put your ROMs/kernels/GApps on your SD card, then reboot to recovery.
1. Wiping / factory resetting
This is why we back up your data in the first place. Different ROMs need different data, and data left over from one ROM can cause another ROM to get stuck in a bootloop.
Tip: If you're using TWRP, try enabling Use rm -rf instead of formatting in Advanced settings. Formatting doesn't really have any perceivable advantages over simply removing the contents of your data partition (unless you somehow corrupted it), and it actually causes higher wear on your storage chip. (Storage doesn't last forever - I've had my old Samsung bricked because I reformatted too much.)
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In CWM, it's called wipe data/factory reset; in TWRP, it's simply called Wipe. Wipe your data, dalvik-cache, and cache partitions.
2. Flashing the ROM and other addons
In CWM, it's called install zip (from sdcard); in TWRP, it's simply called Install. Browse to your ROM zip and install.
Tip: If you're using TWRP, you can add ZIPs to the ZIP queue in this order: ROM > GApps (if any) > Kernel (if any) > Addons/Patches (if any).
Users of CWM must manually flash each ZIP, in the same order.
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3. Finishing up
Now all that's left to do is pray for the best and reboot.
Testing
If you flashed GApps, do NOT let Google restore data yet. We'll do that later.
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After initial setup completes and your newly-installed ROM settles down, it's time to get testing. It would be helpful if you listed down all the features you need and check/cross them out one by one if they work or not. For example, I need working screen cast and usable video recording, both of which do not work in all the CM-based ROMs I've tested.
Some ROMs, especially sprout4 ROMs, require patches when installing on sprout8 devices in order to provide the most optimal experience. Try flashing those to see if the ROM gets any better for you.
Rinse & repeat?
So, have you decided that this ROM is for you?
Yes, this ROM is awesome! I love it!
If you backed up earlier using Google, do another factory reset and this time, let Google restore your data.
If you used Titanium for backup, you can safely restore your data now.
If you made a Nandroid backup, you technically can restore your backup as-is since most of the ROMs available for sprout are CM-based; but I wouldn't recommend this as this can cause bootloops. Otherwise, you can manually restore your data one-by-one - but this is a time-consuming process.
I'm not quite sure I like this ROM yet.
Well that's okay, just repeat this guide from the start.
Finishing up
Now that you've decided on what ROM to use, you can safely delete your backups and ZIPs - though it would be better to keep them as they might come in handy if your device starts having problems.
Notes
If you're flashing a Marshmallow ROM, don't flash Xposed right after you flash your ROM as this may cause a bootloop.
Never ask for ETAs on ROM threads. That's rude.
That's it for this guide! Happy flashing! :fingers-crossed:
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Awesome post. Enjoyed it!?
aureljared said:
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Sry for digging up this old thread. I was wondering if there is a tutorial for Titanium Backup specifically targeting a switch between custom roms, having different versions of android.
I'm in the midth of moving from cm 13 to lineageos 15 and just tried to backup apps+data in Titanium Backup and restore them and the new system is now somewhat buggy..I'm not sure if the restored backup is the reason for this or not....Maybe there are specific settings to be set..... I mean it's common sense for me not to backup and restore system data but maybe I am missing other important things to be set prior to a backup in Titanium Backup.
trohn_javolta said:
Sry for digging up this old thread. I was wondering if there is a tutorial for Titanium Backup specifically targeting a switch between custom roms, having different versions of android.
I'm in the midth of moving from cm 13 to lineageos 15 and just tried to backup apps+data in Titanium Backup and restore them and the new system is now somewhat buggy..I'm not sure if the restored backup is the reason for this or not....Maybe there are specific settings to be set..... I mean it's common sense for me not to backup and restore system data but maybe I am missing other important things to be set prior to a backup in Titanium Backup.
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It's hard to say, some apps might work improperly or refuse to terminate in the background due to a mismatch in the restored data. I only backup/restore game data nowadays, as Google Backup takes care of my contacts, SMS, settings, and customization. No problems encountered so far.
The only setting I change in TiBkp is the compression method, as the default (gzip, I think) produces somewhat large backups. I use bzip2.
If you really need to restore everything, it might help for you to wipe /data and restore apps in TiBkp one by one until you find the culprit.
aureljared said:
It's hard to say, some apps might work improperly or refuse to terminate in the background due to a mismatch in the restored data. I only backup/restore game data nowadays, as Google Backup takes care of my contacts, SMS, settings, and customization. No problems encountered so far.
The only setting I change in TiBkp is the compression method, as the default (gzip, I think) produces somewhat large backups. I use bzip2.
If you really need to restore everything, it might help for you to wipe /data and restore apps in TiBkp one by one until you find the culprit.
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Trying the Google Way was also my thought, unfortunately it does not work for me. I posted this today in the rom I used until now:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=76022005#post76022005
The initial setup was quite some time ago and now I cannot recall what I may have done to insult the google sync service
Thanks for this.
Can I ask something?
If I'm on stock rom and have magisk and modules installed. To switch rom, do I need to uninstall those first?
or when using nandroid backup... is its okey to backup with magisk+module on it?
watatara.102 said:
Can I ask something?
If I'm on stock rom and have magisk and modules installed. To switch rom, do I need to uninstall those first?
or when using nandroid backup... is its okey to backup with magisk+module on it?
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You might want to uninstall your modules first to be safe, but if you're sure they're compatible with the ROM you're switching to, then you might be fine keeping them. As always, backup before trying anything dangerous. :good:
Nandroids are whole-device backups, so if you backup while Magisk is installed, Magisk and your modules will still be there when you restore the backup. If that's what you're aiming for, then go ahead and backup. Just make sure to backup the boot image too, since that's where Magisk is installed.
Sent from my starlte using XDA Labs
Can I install a nandroid backup of a totally different ROM to replace the current ROM I'm using with TWRP?