[Q] Custom Roms & Migrating Data - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi Guys
I have a sg2
I'm a bit of a newbie forgive me i am coming from the dark apple side.
When you guys are flashing custom roms onto the phones e.g cyanogenmod
I assume your previous stock firmware stuff gets wiped
e.g. installed programs , settings, contacts, calenders . music & videos.
What do you guys do as a work around, how do u back things up and migrate your stuff across.
I'm not to concerned about programs & music files as those are a simple drag & drop from your pc, and copy & reinstall.
But what about Intricate settings e.g. alarm clock definitions, brightness , ringtone levels, wifi that sort of things
are they backed up & migrated when you change ROMS, do you use any special android software.
or do you just start again from scratch.
thanks in advance
harlzden

You can backup your settings and everything before installing another rom. Few apps for that. One i use is called titanium backup. you wipe / install a new rom, run titanium backup and restore all your data and settings.

Cheers Shabs
for the quick reply
does the backup also do those space hoggers e.g. Android App, Music files, Video files
or do you avoid these and backup these up manually,
reason i ask is samsung kies does a all in one backup , but its awfully slow !!!
works best just for the settings, space hoggers files must be unticked in kies to backup

harlzden said:
Cheers Shabs
for the quick reply
does the backup also do those space hoggers e.g. Android App, Music files, Video files
or do you avoid these and backup these up manually,
reason i ask is samsung kies does a all in one backup , but its awfully slow !!!
works best just for the settings, space hoggers files must be unticked in kies to backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know you can choose just to backup settings. You could also use something like MyBackup Pro which is what I used coming from the HTC Desire.

all android phones i've used, google backs up most everything for you. when you first start up the device, checkbox for backup to google servers is an option.
so when i start from scratch on a ROM, google restores my settings, wifi access points and password, wallpaper, all apps are restored from market free and paid, etc. the only thing not restored is call logs and texts, and of course specific app data.
for that stuff, most people use titanium backup.

Related

Question about Restoring with Titanium Backup

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?

Persistent Data - between Rom swaps

Scenario: Installed Vegan 5 on gtablet. Play angry Birds and get to level 20, input my location into Weatherbug, setup icons in launcher, configure wireless, write a short note in quickoffice and set up network share in Astro. Now, do a clockwork backup of the rom. I wish to now install TNT lite 4.4. Before installing a new rom you usually wipe partitons, etc. then install the rom. After the install I have to do all these things again, including starting over in Angry Birds! Especially annoying is having to set up the desktop again (after I re-install all the apps). What I would like to be able to do is use TNT-lite 4.4 today and tomorrow restore Vegan 5 and have all my user data and settings from today persist into the other rom. I would think settings are stored somewhere that could be preserved between rom installations. Can this be done?
Not going to happen.
You can use Titanium Backup Pro to backup your apps and data (don't backup system apps though) and restore them with your game progress, etc....
But you can't have persistent configuration/data between different ROM installs.
tcrews said:
Not going to happen.
You can use Titanium Backup Pro to backup your apps and data (don't backup system apps though) and restore them with your game progress, etc....
But you can't have persistent configuration/data between different ROM installs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was afraid that would be the answer. Going the Titanium Backup route - I'm looking at the backup/restore screen at the list of apps. You recommend not backing up system apps. Short of "just knowing" from experience, is there a way to identify system apps in the list? Clearly Angry Birds is not but what about email 2.2, download manager 2.2, etc. I'm pretty sure they are but is there a definite way to tell? Or, can I just backup the whole batch and then only restore things like Angry Birds to retain my game progress?
There are batch options in the Backup/Restore tab that give you a one click backup of what you are looking for.....
Hit the menu button when on the Backup/Restore tab in Titanium Backup and choose "Batch", then "Backup all User Apps" and this will be all the apps you have downloaded and their data (game progress, notes, etc..).
duplicate post....OOPS
tcrews said:
There are batch options in the Backup/Restore tab that give you a one click backup of what you are looking for.....
Hit the menu button when on the Backup/Restore tab in Titanium Backup and choose "Batch", then "Backup all User Apps" and this will be all the apps you have downloaded and their data (game progress, notes, etc..).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume that I need to configure TB tl write to sdcard2 so it can be restored after a different r.o.m is installed? I'm unclear as to what gets wiped during the install/restore process.
/sdcard does not get wiped unless you repartition the device. You can also sync to dropbox in the paid version.
Sent from my Viewsonic 10" GTab...

[Q] What is lost during a ROM change? How to backup phone so I can play with ROMS

I'm running streakdroid 1.9 but I would like to do some experimentation with my streak. If I flash a new rom what will I lose? How do you backup your data so you can flash to your hearts content?
Thanks
if u flash stock roms, they do a factory reset during first start up.
So u end up loosing everything.
However if u flash .zip version of the stock roms using CWM or streak recovery , u will retain almost everything but may loose somethings like root and so on.
Remember stock roms will flash its default recovery everytime it boots up
Ok thanks. Is it wise to do a factory reset anyway?
What tools can I use to backup messages, apps, photos, etc?
I use titanium backup.
If you do a nandroid backup, when you restore it, everything will be just as it was before you flashed another ROM...
As far as using Titanium... it has never worked for me completely, nor has MyBackUp Pro, they cause me more headache than being useful...
I have gotten to the point to when I flash a new ROM, I just manually install everything, I know it sounds like some hassle, but you end up with a much smoother operating phone.
I even do a nandroid backup first, then go into my ROM and manually uninstall everything, so that when I boot up my new ROM and setup my market account, it doesn't try to install everything on its own and bog down my phone at first, I install everything manually in the order I want and set them up as I go.
I know this sounds cumbersome, but I have found it creates a cleaner environment and practically eliminated force closes
That is the way I like to do things also but what about the things that you can't just re-install e.g. sms, application specific data?
Advice
I was having a sim card and constant restart issue after updating to streakroid 2.4.4, and even after flashing dsc, the problem persisted. After I reviewed the steps I had taken I realized that I never did a factory resest (fearing I would forever lose my precious app data, which I did -_-). It turned out that was the fix, after doing the factory reset, my sim card was recognized immediately and a couple of the text I had missed showed up. However, I fixed one fixed problem and developed another.
Even though I restored a MyBackup and Titanium backup I did right before resetting I recovered my several apps without their precious data (setting, notes, bookmarks). I tried doing internal backups within the apps, some conveniently had syncs to a cloud yet I missed doing that with a few apps because I have over 100+ and I use more than half on a regular basis (even if for 5 minutes). All my apps are on my device, which is a good thing but I cant appreciate that given the missing data.
So my advice is:
Use apps that have can automatically backup or sync data -- there are enough apps with similiar utility that you can avoid ones without that function.
Do a manual backup within your important apps. -- Some apps backup files to locations that may be wiped during update, doesn't have auto backup or the last backup is months old.
Pics, texts, call logs are easily backed up -- Backup programs will explicitly state or ask what to back up in that regard.
Do a nandroid backup -- I believe this only restores rom and apps but someone can correct me.
Caveat
Through all the research done before actually need to restore a backup I missed the fact when restore apps depending on the restore program every app has to be reinstalled individually. If you have more than 25 apps then #$#@!, also for some reason when restoring with titanium if during a batch restore you come across an app if you hit cancel during one of the install prompts because you actually don't want to restore that app the batch will freeze and you'll have to force close titanium and start the restore all over. Go through the list of restore options and choose each app one by one, save yourself the time.
Lastly, to piggy back off what was said before, a factory reset( FR) after updating rom is always recommended but its not always needed. Most roms will update without causing you to lose any data but like I said previously I had sim card issues when I updated without a FR. YMMV
At this point I don't know if this helps the OP but maybe it will benefit someone else who reads this thread.
This guide by _n0p_ tells how to do an upgrade and minimize the re-installation of apps.
Key items:
Use the backup function of any apps that have it
Don't count on restoring data with TB or My Backup
Make a nandroid - just in case
I have found TB and My Backup to be useful for things like browser bookmarks.
The post linked to discussed going from Froyo to Gingerbread but the same techniques apply for moving to any other ROM.
Last time i changed roms, i used the Dell backup utility for evertyhing but the apps, which can be backed up together with their data with QtADB which creates a backup folder on your SD. After installing the new rom, i chose advanced recovery from the Dell Utility and set it to recover everything but the apps, which i recovered with QtADB. However, I also strongly recommend nandroid, in case the steak doesn't boot after the install.

[Q] Which backup app you would suggest to use before rooting?

After the search through the forum I haven't found a good answer for this question.
I'm preparing for rooting my Desire Z.
I have to downgrade - everything will be lost.
As everyone knows I CAN'T use Titanium backup.
So which backup app you would suggest to use?
I need the perfect restore of settings and apps after the root.
I've looked for some of the apps but I can only say something about the interfaces:
My backup pro - simple interface. Allows to backup "data" (whatever it means) and "applications and media" (not sure if this means widgets too, not sure what does media mean)
Backup Master/B] - nice interface. Lets to choose between: sms, mms, bookmarks, call log, system setting, alarms, apn, application (does it mean widgets too?). This would be the app to go if it works 100% well.
App Backup and reinstall - lists all of the apps. You can chose which one to back up. Seems to backup apps and games only.
So as you see the choice would be quite easy (Backup Everything). However does it work perfectly well? Does it backup widgets too?
May be you would suggest any other app?
i dont think there's any app tht allows u to backup everything without being rooted. but
titanium backup is the way to go after you have.
For those who have the same question.
I had to give the phone to service, so I've backed up the phone using Backup Master.
As I anticipated they have upgraded my system to 2.42 WITHOUT ASKING ME for approval.
The result:
Cons:
1. Some of the apps have not been restored. They've just shown during restore but didn't install.
2. The process was not hands free. I had to confirm reinstalling each app.
3. No settings in the backuped apps have been restored.
4. Phone book wasn't restored.
5. No settings in the launcher or the system were restored.
6. No settings of such apps like Tasker or MS Folder Note has been restored (you have to back up your personal data and your notes from the level of these apps).
Pros:
1. Sms and mms history was restored properly.
2. Call log has been restored properly
2. Most of the apps have been reinstalled.
So as you see you can restore more or less the system bu you will spend hours on setting up the settings back again.

[Q] Trouble restoring data backed up with Titanium Backup

Hello, I was handed an i9100 with stock Samsung GB on it and requested to migrate it to cm10.x. I backed up accounts, bt pairings, bookmarks, call logs, messages, and wifi access points with Titanium Backup 6.1.4.3, then flashed dorimax kernel and then cm 10.1.3 stable. now i'm trying to restore all data backed up prior and unfortunately find i'm unable to do so...
I've tried with "migrate system data" both enabled and disabled in TiBU preferences, i've tried restoring the normal android way and file way but it's not working
Is there any chance of success here or will i have to go back to stock gb, try restore all data, backup using another app and then flash cm 10.1.3 again? very lengthy procedure hence i'm reluctant to proceed with this route...
System data restore is a big no-no from one Android version to another. User apps & data only (and even then some data might not play nice for various reasons). Don't forget, you're making a huge leap going from GB to CM10, a lot changed (in Android).
Edit - Call logs/msgs are easy enough to backup/restore though; use the backup/restore to/from XML in Ti. The other stuff you'll need to setup manually (BT & WiFi stuff). Accounts you should be able to restore the normal way (Google, Samsung, Firefox, whatever). No need to use Ti.
MistahBungle said:
System data restore is a big no-no from one Android version to another. User apps & data only (and even then some data might not play nice for various reasons). Don't forget, you're making a huge leap going from GB to CM10, a lot changed (in Android).
Edit - Call logs/msgs are easy enough to backup/restore though; use the backup/restore to/from XML in Ti. The other stuff you'll need to setup manually (BT & WiFi stuff). Accounts you should be able to restore the normal way (Google, Samsung, Firefox, whatever). No need to use Ti.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was just able to restore accounts from the titanium backup created earlier, involved pasting accounts.db file into data/system/users/0 folder.
unfortunately, the phone owner's contacts weren't being sync'd with the google account so i think i'm in hot water there
i might also be able to restore wifi, bt etc. as they only involve pasting files from titanium backup into the appropriate folder but contacts and messages seems to be a huge problem for me

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