I'm curious for any insights anyone has into this: it seems like most of my apps can only have their data backed up by Titanium Backup (which of course requires root), but Android itself seems to offer a mechanism for apps to backup any of their data to its servers (described here). Why don't more apps use this? It would make life so much easier if I could restore my apps with their data when I get a new phone without needing to worry about rooting. Are there issues with this mechanism of backing up data that is preventing it from gaining more traction? (or is this function used more commonly than I'm thinking it is based on my very un-scientific and anecdotal observation of the apps I have?)
Maybe the data that these apps use are somewhere in a folder requiring root access to view them. Maybe that's why.
Thanks, but I think you're reading my question to be about why users can only backup app data with Titanium Backup (or other programs that require root access).
My real question is: why don't app makers just use the tools that Google has provided for them to backup their data to Google's servers? This would obviate the need for us to worry about backing up our app data at all. It looks to me like this functionality Google has designed (as described here) should make it so that when I re-install an app (or install it on a new phone), all of my settings automatically return from the cloud without me -- which sounds HEAVENLY! Why isn't this being used more?
just realised android has this.. how do I know if an app are using this? is it in the permissions?
djmickyg said:
just realised android has this.. how do I know if an app are using this? is it in the permissions?
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Yeah, that's a good question, and I'm not sure. I don't recall seeing any permissions about this.
I feel like Android's app data backup service is one of the greatest and most underused and under-appreciated features of the OS. How do we get more developers to use this?
Related
Okay, after much reading and studying I am preparing to get ready to root.
Wondering if I need to back up at all before unlocking. I manually copied over my pics and vids and have exported my contacts.
If a nandroid is felt to be necessary for safety purposes before unlocking then you can disregard the rest of my post, I will temp root and use Titanium (although I am still curious about how the apps install on Android OS). If it's not really necessary then I have more questions:
As far as apps go...
If I don't care about user settings/data of apps does it matter if I back them up or not? I can always redownload from Market right? Or will flashing a ROM break the market ties? I have apps from Market and from Amazon.
When apps install do they put files in different folders like on Windows or do they stay "whole" as programs used to do on older Macs? Just wondering how the back up/restore will work. I have grabbed a lot of apps to try out and there's many that I will not install again once I get a clean phone. So is there something I can use to make a back up without temp rooting? I know I won't be able to do a nandroid, does that matter?
Or is it better and safer to temp root with CleanTool, back up with Titanium and then restore the apps I want after I unlock and root and flash a ROM and kernel? Doing it this way will save all my user data, correct?
Also, I'm not worried about phone settings like what icons I have on my home page etc... I haven't gotten it exactly how I want it yet anyway. Still deciding how I want to set it all up so that it works best for me.
Thanks for any help.
If you want to make a back up of your apps you will have to temp root. Ti backup or Mr backup are good for doing it just make sure you change where they save to the sd2. They start out saving to the sd card which in this phone is the internal which gets wiped.
sent from my cm7 rooted fire
I went through the same thought process you're going through before I rooted (this past weekend). What I ended up doing was exporting my contacts directly from "People". I then just went directly to unlock and perm root. I was expecting to be able to restore my apps and contacts from the market, but to my surprise, was not able to do so. I imported my contacts back, and then proceeded to re-setup my phone by re-downloading apps from the market. Not really THAT painful, and going forward, I have Nandroid and Titanium backups.
You're aware you can do a native screen capture of your present phone screens by pressing power, then home, aren't you?
I temp rooted and used titanium backup. I like to be able to restore data on 3rd party apps only. I use mybackup pro for sms (I only keep 200 per contact, but nice not to lose them), then use google for contacts, calender, etc.
Although you can always backup your apps and data using these programs, anytime you flash a new ROM, it's best to install all of the apps fresh and not restore data from a different ROM (such as the stock ROM). Since I know you want to use Ineffabilis, you might want to use Titanium backup or something to just backup the apps, not the data on those apps. Makes things much better.
EDIT: Also, you can't do a Nand backup without a recovery installed, which requires the phone to be unlocked and perm rooted. You can always backup your apps and data with temp root, but a true Nandroid backup is something that you can't do until you have perm root.
WasabiWa83 said:
Although you can always backup your apps and data using these programs, anytime you flash a new ROM, it's best to install all of the apps fresh and not restore data from a different ROM (such as the stock ROM). Since I know you want to use Ineffabilis, you might want to use Titanium backup or something to just backup the apps, not the data on those apps. Makes things much better.
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Does anyone happen to know if Words with Friends stores data on my phone or if it's stored on their server since it's between two different people or how I can tell? I'm kicking my bro's ass in a game right now so I DEF don't want to lose that. One day he WILL RESPECT his little sis!
DIncLover said:
I went through the same thought process you're going through before I rooted (this past weekend). What I ended up doing was exporting my contacts directly from "People". I then just went directly to unlock and perm root. I was expecting to be able to restore my apps and contacts from the market, but to my surprise, was not able to do so. I imported my contacts back, and then proceeded to re-setup my phone by re-downloading apps from the market. Not really THAT painful, and going forward, I have Nandroid and Titanium backups.
You're aware you can do a native screen capture of your present phone screens by pressing power, then home, aren't you?
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Market knows you've bought apps though so it's no problem to re-download paid apps, right? I have this thing about doing everything fresh on computers so I might just do the same on this baby.
Also, I'm not concerned about my phone screens, I haven't set them up enough to care.
feralicious said:
Does anyone happen to know if Words with Friends stores data on my phone or if it's stored on their server since it's between two different people or how I can tell? I'm kicking my bro's ass in a game right now so I DEF don't want to lose that. One day he WILL RESPECT his little sis!
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Hahaa, too funny. I'm pretty sure that's all over the network. I reinstalled the app after flashing Ineffabilis and just had to sign back in to get all my games back. Hence the fact that you can continue games on Facebook and such.
feralicious said:
Market knows you've bought apps though so it's no problem to re-download paid apps, right? I have this thing about doing everything fresh on computers so I might just do the same on this baby.
Also, I'm not concerned about my phone screens, I haven't set them up enough to care.
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paid apps show up on your acct but free ones don't and you have to search for them. If you are looking for just an app backup, app monster pro works well for this and can do apk backup for most apps (some are protected). Just set it up for old style back up, doesn't require root.
WasabiWa83 said:
Although you can always backup your apps and data using these programs, anytime you flash a new ROM, it's best to install all of the apps fresh and not restore data from a different ROM (such as the stock ROM). Since I know you want to use Ineffabilis, you might want to use Titanium backup or something to just backup the apps, not the data on those apps. Makes things much better.
EDIT: Also, you can't do a Nand backup without a recovery installed, which requires the phone to be unlocked and perm rooted. You can always backup your apps and data with temp root, but a true Nandroid backup is something that you can't do until you have perm root.
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I've never had any problems restoring data on 3rd party apps. I never restore system apps/data.
nrfitchett4 said:
I've never had any problems restoring data on 3rd party apps. I never restore system apps/data.
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Ah, touche That's right. I forgot it was just system apps that you want to stay away from regarding data. I just always do a clean install on all apps when I install a new ROM anyway.
I've been looking absolutely everywhere for an answer to this, and can't find anything more than chains of "I'm looking for the answer to this too" in every thread. How do I backup apps and data of other users, for use in a fresh ROM installation? The repeating of this question appears to have died down lately making me suspicious that it's since been found to be doable and that I'm just missing something.
Titanium Backup is of no help because it only handles multi user data, meaning that the main user must have the app installed also, otherwise restoring the backup only causes Titanium to hang indefinitely. There don't even appear to be any other apps that even try to support multi user. The best I've seen so far is some overly-complicated guide that requires you copy-and-paste the data files to Titanium's multi profile system, and then do the same vice versa.
There can't be no support for such a notable feature that's been around for a such a long time now, so where is it?
How about now?
This is way too hellish.
Hi guys!
Anyone can tell me why pls? I dont know exactly what i can do after that.
Subzeromot said:
Hi guys!
Anyone can tell me why pls? I dont know exactly what i can do after that.
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I would recommend reading the official XDA introduction guide to rooting that will answer all your questions and more on root found here. Let me know if you have any additional questions I'll be happy to answer them for you.
Subzeromot said:
Hi guys!
Anyone can tell me why pls? I dont know exactly what i can do after that.
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There are many articles on the internet that explain this. I'll give you the gist of them though:
Debloating. "Bloat" is unwanted/unneeded apps. They take up space, they slow things down, and they bug you for updates. You can't always delete what you don't want because these apps are installed by the manufacturer or carrier as "system" apps, rather than "user" apps. With root access you can uninstall system apps. Be careful in what you delete though, and always do a back-up first.
Back-ups. With apps like Titanium, ROM Tool Box, and Helium, you can do full back-ups of your apps. It's a good idea to do a back-up before updating some apps, as you might prefer the older version vs the new one. Or, you can back-up a game that doesn't save to a server/cloud and you don't lose your progress. And you can back up system apps before deleting them so you can always restore them if things go awry.
Ad blocking. With apps like AdAway you can block ads within apps/games and also ads within your web browsers. Besides making things cleaner and less annoying, this improves load times and reduces data usage because the ads don't have to load.
Customization. Root access can let you use certain apps to customize the appearance and function of your OS. Most notable is the Xposed framework, an extremely powerful tool that utilizes individual modules to not only change how your phone looks, but how it can fundamentally operate.
Performance. Even without a custom kernel, you can still use a kernel controller app to tweak your phone for better performance or better battery life. Exactly what can be done and by how much depends on the phone.
Free wifi tethering. There are apps that bypass your carrier and phone's built-in tether provisioning.
Tasker. Tasker is an app that can automate your phone to do whatever you want whenever you want it to happen. It's nearly limitless.
Hi everyone,
In the last 6 months I've been going back and forth between phones a lot (mainly because of a temperamental GS6, that got replaced by a GS7 last week). To be honest, I never really cared about backing up anything on my Android devices in the past because I would still use an iPhone as a main device (I know, I know...). Now though, my Android has become my main device and I want to back things up as seamlessly as I can - say what you want about Apple and iOS, but as a Mac user, backup is something they do really well.
I've noticed that even if I checked off everything that I had to, nothing got backed up to my account: no Wifi passwords, no app data, nothing. I did see the devices to restore from when I booted a new phone, but selecting one or another backup only asked me which apps I wanted to re-install; once done, no app data was restored. I mean, I can go to Play and re-install apps myself... the whole point is to recover my DATA in the apps... And as I mentioned, all my passwords needed to be input manually and so on.
I'm not talking about contacts or calendars, those are fine; I'm just interested in app data. Did I miss something? Am I misunderstanding what I can and cannot back up?
Thanks!
PS: I know of and have used things like Titanium, but both my GS6 and GS7 are not rooted, and I can't (because of a stupid rule from Canadian Banks of all things...) so those are not an option. I find it hard to believe there are no solutions in 2016 to back up my app data. All the backup apps I've tried back up the APKs but not the data.
Helium backup doesn't require root, so I recommend trying it out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup it's not as good as titanium backup though.
mosimchah said:
Helium backup doesn't require root, so I recommend trying it out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup it's not as good as titanium backup though.
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Thanks, I've tried it but it doesn't keep application data either just the APKs
You will have to have root for this. This is due to the security of the data partition where the apps and data are being restored. Google does back up the info with apps or so they say but I have never seen it work outside of the nexus line due to oem messing with the code.
I was wondering if anyone out there has made or adjusted there rom to strip out all the things that aren't used and make it just focused on the core operations (radio, calls, navigation, music, poweramp, dvd with a couple of extras like torque) - the aim would be to make the device as quick as possible.
For example, I don't use the email client or video on this; don't plan to add a reversing camera etc. But all the MTC keys, etc are useful to get it work properly so you would need to do this. So has anyone done this before? Just interested to know if the device/stock rom could be speeded up by any reasonable margin.
If you wish to remove unwanted apps from a MTCB head unit ROM, after rooting (generally it's very easy) you can freely delete all the useless apps you don't need.
I do intend to do that - you can do that using titantium backup right?
Would this speed up the headunit much - or unlikely to that much as most of it is probably not running in any case?
Would be helpful if there was a list of apps you can remove safely and apps you can't. Last year I uninstalled a load of telephony related apps which messed it all up. Error messages everywhere. I had to reinstall Android.
Mr Bigglesworth said:
you can do that using titantium backup right?
Would this speed up the headunit much - or unlikely to that much as most of it is probably not running in any case?
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Yes, you can use Titanium Backup or other root disabler apps.
General speed might be however only slightly increased but it depends on which apps were running automatically as startup.
If you want to try to speed up the boot time you can find some useful information here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3246437