How to clean redundant crap? - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Android reminds me of a computer in that, in time, it fills up with redundant, pointless files that were not deleted by uninstalled apps etc.
If I wanted to clean up the whol system without wiping the phone and start again, how do I know what I can scrap?

robertandrews said:
Android reminds me of a computer in that, in time, it fills up with redundant, pointless files that were not deleted by uninstalled apps etc.
If I wanted to clean up the whol system without wiping the phone and start again, how do I know what I can scrap?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only you can decide what is crap and can be deleted from your phone.
Or install a virus and let it decide what to do with your phone ;-)
Only for some special data, there are apps which can lead you to delete no-longer used data.
For example Titanium Backup can identify app data of un-installed apps.
Sorry, but you will have to take some time, look through all your apps and data on your sd card, decide what to un-install and/or delete.
Just to be on the "safe" side, make a backup of your system before.

Read
Applications Safe To Remove
remove any custom apps that you do not use or need any more.
then clean cache and daavik cache.

Also, if you have leftover folders and such from old installs that weren't removed, you can use Root Explorer and delete them manually.
Be careful not to remove files still in use, though!

Related

[Q] Data backup switching to Gingerbread ROM

I'm running veganTAB 5.1.1 at the moment. I've installed a lot of apps, have some documents stored locally, a lot of data in springpad as well as a good number of media files.
I know switching to the ginger edition requires a wiping data. I have titanium back and ran a full backup of apps and data.
What I'd like to know is the best way to go about restoring my apps and app data and whether I'll be deleting any locally saved files when I "wipe data". I guess i'm not clear whether wiping data means wiping everything, like a reformat, or if it means a specific menu option in clockwork.
I'm a bit of a noob at this still. I have reflashed roms a couple of times but at the time I didn't have a lot of stuff to worry about saving and I'm not sure whether I wiped more than I needed to.
A data wipe will erase user installed applications, their associated data, and system data (but not system apps). It will not harm files stored on sdcard or sdcard2.
Does restoring the apps through titaniumbackup work? I seem to recall trying that once and the app didn't work until I uninstalled it and redownloaded from the market. Maybe I did it wrong.
Restoring apps and data should work. Do not restore system data or you will have trouble. It is quite possible that you'll have to reinstall Titanium Backup to make it work correctly. I've had to do that once or twice when changing ROMs.
Smooth and easy, not sure what I was worried about. Thanks.
I just did the same thing and had real good luck with app mybackup, I just backed up the apps and no data and it worked perfect. Gingerbread was very nice roms. But it seemed the more programs you load the longer it takes to boot. At first it booted in a few secs. Then I did my restore of all my apps and it took like 5 min to boot all the time. Not sure what that was about.. But I switched back to TNT.
I have sold my Gtab to a friend and want to keep all my downloaded app's .
I can move them to the SD card and do a data wipe in CWM and it will remove my personal data like passwords and facebook ,, gmail account ?
and still keep my apps ?
Thanks

[Q] Erasing everything.

I've been messing with my ATT SGS2 for a few months. I'd like to start from scratch now that I know which Rom I'm going to want to keep. I unrooted my phone and set it back to stock. However, I still have all the downloaded files, pictures, etc in the /sdcard folder. If I want to keep my apps only, can I delete EVERYTHING in the /sdcard folder(except for titanium backup folder) or are there some system files in the /sdcard folder that should not be deleted?
Some apps store their data in there, but usually re-create them on next boot of the app. It would be safe to say that you can delete most of the things, but I would manually delete them by mounting it as a mass storage on your computer and delete through that interface.
Stock Rom
Orionsax7 said:
I've been messing with my ATT SGS2 for a few months. I'd like to start from scratch now that I know which Rom I'm going to want to keep. I unrooted my phone and set it back to stock. However, I still have all the downloaded files, pictures, etc in the /sdcard folder. If I want to keep my apps only, can I delete EVERYTHING in the /sdcard folder(except for titanium backup folder) or are there some system files in the /sdcard folder that should not be deleted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can delete the /sdcard contents if you want.
Any stock apps, files or folders will be automatically re-created when you
flash the stock rom. If you want to save your market apps, then just do a
backup using titanium full backup first.
Good Luck!
WARNING: Only use the following instructions if you at sure you want to reset your phone back completely to out of the box conditions and you have everything important to you backed up in a separate location from your phone.
If you would like to start from scratch you can enter the following number into the dialer
*2767*3855#
This will reset your phone to stock out of the box conditions, including wiping resting the internal sdcard.
Edit: FYI, the only thing that I know this dialer code will not reset to stock is the download mode binary counter - to reset that requires a usb download mode jig.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
Misterjunky said:
Yo If you want to save your market apps, then just do a
backup using titanium full backup first.
Good Luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a little more reading on how to use TiBU before you rely on this advice. One major caveat is that you never restore system data with TiBU, especially when going to a different ROM from the one you did the backup on. All kinds of bad things will happen if you do. The same can be said when switching phones. Some of my apps that I restored from my Captivate did not work properly on my SGSII. I had to reinstall them from the Market and then restore their data separately. Luckily I did not lose my Angry Birds progress.
Thanks, all! I am currently using unnamed and will be going back to it after this. Just want to wipe everything and start fresh.
I plan to wipe everything and reinstall some apps that I had. In order to reinstall the app data, all I need to do is save the Titanium Backup folder to my computer and then move it back over after the wipe and Rom install, correct?
backup/restore
Orionsax7 said:
Thanks, all! I am currently using unnamed and will be going back to it after this. Just want to wipe everything and start fresh.
I plan to wipe everything and reinstall some apps that I had. In order to reinstall the app data, all I need to do is save the Titanium Backup folder to my computer and then move it back over after the wipe and Rom install, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have an external sdcard you can move or copy the titanium backup
there too. As long as you do not manually specify formatting the external
sdcard the titanium backup folder will remain fully intact.
Just remember when you do a titanium restore to only use the
"Restore Missing Apps with Data" option only.
Stay away from the option to restore "Missing Apps+All System Data".
Good Luck!
Gotcha! Thanks again!
I just go into settings>privacy and do the factory reset there.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium

[Q] Restore Apps through CWM?

Hey all,
So I just purchased Titanium Backup Pro and was wondering if it was possible to restore apps through CWM, or maybe have Titanium Backup as a root app, so that way when I boot up from a fresh wipe, I'll have all my apps available.
Dumb question time: after wiping and going through the first-time setup screen, when it asks you for your google account, should I uncheck the "restore from google account"? If I don't, it'll automatically start downloading all my apps from the market, thus defeating the purpose of Titanium Backup.
Thanks!
Not entirely a waste. See the root is what makes it amazing.
Lets say you have your inbox that had messages of personal keep, Wife? Gf? or possibly both LOL, those data are saved in root folders, TB Root version tends to back up all of this data, every single message from every person, when you reformat the tablet you obviously lose all your data, but TB Root can restore the data, this includes save games, or memo's, settings, alarm setups,contacts too.
You don't really need to uncheck as you can stop it by tapping the X when you open market to stop all the downloads in general, or just turn the Wifi off LOL.
Also you can't really boot with all apps after a fresh wipe, It's like going for surgery to remove a scar only to have it back again LOL. You will need to re-install TB from market (as all apps will be wiped too, since you purchased it it will just redownload it properly) then you can restore it. Normally it saves under sdcard/TitaniumBackup
As for apps via CWM, that's how they install apps with Custom ROM's but it's not advisable since most apps that get forced into system/app don't always get updated, you need something like market doctor in TB to relink it to market so it updates again.
Thanks for the reply!
So what's your recommendation when re-starting after a fresh wipe? I hate waiting hours for all my apps to re-download from Market/Play, as I'm sure many others do, and I'm sure people have come up with far easier/quicker solutions. This is why I bought Titanium Backup, as I thought it was supposed to fix that problem.
Sorry for being a total n00b here.
That's the thing, after a wipe (Factory reset) you download TB from the market, it should already be there for you to download, as per the backup's are saved on your internal drive, as soon as you launch TB *Make sure the tablet is rooted after a wipe check as TB will mention it for you* after which you go to Menu->Batch->Restore "User apps and missing data" and it will show all the apps that you have installed, I would insist not to restore system apps as they would replace the system apps and you may get FC errors.
However when you are done restoring User apps, you can go to the restore tab, and tap on certain "System apps" these can be identified as apps with a red name/smiley, For example Tribuchet.apk is the launcher for ICS 10.1, if you tap it, and press "Restore Data Only" then it will restore the layout on how you had set up your desktop to be.
http://matrixrewriter.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=TB+-+User's+guide This guide is pretty nifty for TB user's who first start out.
PS: Make sure when you back up your stuff, that you backup both system and user apps, that way you can always be sure you didn't lose anything important
How exactly would you make a zip if you wanted to restore apps via cwm?

[Q] 4.13.651.4 Bluetooth won't activate

Hello all,
I just wiped and installed 4.13.651.4 rooted stock odex upgrade from captain throwback's release. Previously coming from 4.13.651.1. I used titanium backup to backup everything from previous installation, then restored everything from that release once upgraded. That screwed a bunch of stuff up because I restored all system and data as well as user apps and data. Wiped that out and reinstalled fresh, this time restoring all user apps and data, and only system data. For whatever reason, bluetooth will not operate. Everything else is fine. I cannot figure out how to reinstall only bluetooth files so that it works properly. So far the steps I've taken were to snag the following files from the 4.13.651.4 installation zip from the system/app folder in the zip:
Bluetooth.apk
Bluetooth.odex
HtcBluetoothLeProfiles.apk
HtcBluetoothLeProfiles.odex
HtcBtWidget.apk
HtcBtWidget.odex
Nfc.apk
Nfc.odex
I unzipped these with root explorer, then copied and pasted them into the ROOT/system/app folder after switching to "Mount R/W" in the system/app folder. Once the new files were in place, I changed permissions on all 6 files to be rw-r--r-- just like all the rest of the files. Rebooted phone, bluetooth still doesn't work. Are there any other files that I would've inadvertently have replaced or modified from the previous 4.13.651.1 files that controls bluetooth operation? I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to have to wipe and do over AGAIN!!!
Please help!!
Why are you replacing BT system files? Those aren't part of the TB backup, are they? Did BT work before you started restoring things from your previous install? I would suggest only restoring user apps and within that only the user data you really need to keep. Restore data for apps one-by-one, not all at once. Don't restore system data unless you know it's not going to interfere with what is already there. TB is almost too powerful for its own good when it comes to batch backup and restore. You gotta learn what to exclude and what you really want to migrate to a new install.
But mostly start fresh and make sure BT works before you start restoring anything.
SilverZero said:
Why are you replacing BT system files? Those aren't part of the TB backup, are they? Did BT work before you started restoring things from your previous install? I would suggest only restoring user apps and within that only the user data you really need to keep. Restore data for apps one-by-one, not all at once. Don't restore system data unless you know it's not going to interfere with what is already there. TB is almost too powerful for its own good when it comes to batch backup and restore. You gotta learn what to exclude and what you really want to migrate to a new install.
But mostly start fresh and make sure BT works before you start restoring anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It did work before I started messing with stuff. I'm restoring BT system files hoping it would work again. I don't really know what TB backs up when its set up backup everything. After first time I did restore items one by one and that's what screwed up BT in the first place. I figured putting original files back in system folder would fix it, but it didn't. I only restored system data one by one to try not to have to set up my phones settings again including BT pairings. Guess I've got egg on my face now. Any ideas?
whoshodade said:
It did work before I started messing with stuff. I'm restoring BT system files hoping it would work again. I don't really know what TB backs up when its set up backup everything. After first time I did restore items one by one and that's what screwed up BT in the first place. I figured putting original files back in system folder would fix it, but it didn't. I only restored system data one by one to try not to have to set up my phones settings again including BT pairings. Guess I've got egg on my face now. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it was me, I'd do a factory reset or just reinstall the ROM (try dirty flash, if that doesn't work then wipe and start clean), then restore only user apps. In TB you can do a batch restore, but then uncheck apps you don't want to restore. I wouldn't reinstall any data from anything. If you open a user app and it turns out you don't have the data you want, then go in and restore data for just that app.
Restoring system apps and data is asking for trouble, IMHO.
SilverZero said:
If it was me, I'd do a factory reset or just reinstall the ROM (try dirty flash, if that doesn't work then wipe and start clean), then restore only user apps. In TB you can do a batch restore, but then uncheck apps you don't want to restore. I wouldn't reinstall any data from anything. If you open a user app and it turns out you don't have the data you want, then go in and restore data for just that app.
Restoring system apps and data is asking for trouble, IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what I was trying to avoid.... if there was a way to break it, theres gotta be a way to fix it.
whoshodade said:
Thats what I was trying to avoid.... if there was a way to break it, theres gotta be a way to fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, replace the files you restored or copied over with the originals. My assumption is that the files that are "broken" are the ones that got overwritten when you restored and/or copied into /system from the previous install. They have to be replaced with the original files and data. That would involve extracting them from the original ROM and copying them back into place. I don't know how to go about that. I'd cut my losses and reinstall. If you have a TB backup already, you'll only be out the half-hour it takes to re-flash and restore things. Like I said, you can try a dirty flash, wipe caches only, try a factory reset, etc. I personally would wipe and re-flash clean, because I hate wondering if there are still any ghosts in the machine when I encounter problems like this.
SilverZero said:
Sure, replace the files you restored or copied over with the originals. My assumption is that the files that are "broken" are the ones that got overwritten when you restored and/or copied into /system from the previous install. They have to be replaced with the original files and data. That would involve extracting them from the original ROM and copying them back into place. I don't know how to go about that. I'd cut my losses and reinstall. If you have a TB backup already, you'll only be out the half-hour it takes to re-flash and restore things. Like I said, you can try a dirty flash, wipe caches only, try a factory reset, etc. I personally would wipe and re-flash clean, because I hate wondering if there are still any ghosts in the machine when I encounter problems like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought i did that... I dont know what other items affect BT
I am having issues on a clean install. Haven't connected to Bluetooth since I got the phone.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

Can flashing the wrong System App in TI HARD brick your phone

or cause problems (ie missing sim card) even after a factory reset of custom ROM?
i. What does crossed out mean in TI?
ii. How do I delete an app I don't need anymore off the TI list? swiping to the left and delete it only changes it so there is 'no backup' I want to make it easy to batch restore without deselecting too many things selectively...anyone?
Can't hard brick from that, but definitely could soft brick or cause other odd issues. Factory reset does not return your phone to stock, but rather just removes your accounts, settings, and data. So, if you remove a system app that is essential, a factory reset will not help. As someone who has flashed 1000++ roms (not kidding), I recommend only freezing the apps and not removing. You do not get any extra space from removing the apps as they are stored in a different partition than the apps you add from the Play Store or other means. However, system apps updated through the Play Store will store some data in the /data partition, and if you are not going to use that then it helps to uninstall the update through the Application Manager, and then disabling the app. It's also way easier to defreeze vs reinstall system apps.
Crossed out means that the app is not installed and there is no backup for it. Once you uninstall an app and it's backup, the app will not be available to restore when you go to do a batch restore. As far as only being selective, just make sure that you uncheck the ones you don't need when you make the initial backup. It is not recommended to backup / restore system data, especially when you are switching roms.

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