I'd like to know if there's a way to use Titanium Backup to preform a backup and then transfer those backups to my computer ?
I know this may sound simple but am under the impression that when you make a backup of your ROM and other files on your device, it has to stay on the device.
When making a NANDROID backup, is it safer and more useful if one can store those backups on one's computer ?
Am sure there's a way to do this but am not sure if there's already an app for it.
Thanks in advance.
Titanium Backup puts the backup files onto the root of your SD card in a folder named "TitaniumBackup". I think that's the only data it generated. You can simply copy that folder off your SD card onto your computer (by USB cable or by connecting the SD card into your computer).
As for if it is safer... depending upon your device, it might be the only safe way. For instance, when you unlock the bootloader on a Nexus S or Galaxy Nexus (I have both), it wipes all user data, include the contents of the built-in, non-removal, "SD" flash. If you don't copy it off the device, it won't be there afterwards.
Thank you for replying, jlv3 .
I forget but I do know there are many forms of backups esp. regarding the file system that's being used on the Galaxy Note and others, I think it's the file structure like Fat and NTFS.
I think it's so dangerous in pursuing something you don't know about cause your afraid of Bricking your device.
Related
Hi everyone,
I just updated my Aria to FR007 and really want to have a 'brand new' phone look + feel.
I would like to delete ALL unnecessary files in the SD card & phone memory cos at the moment, I feel like something is not amiss.
I only have 574mb left out of the stock 2gb SD card. And my internal phone storage have only 132mb available space left.
I would like to save only my nandroid backup in the SDcard and nothing else. So deleting all other datas like saved apps, games, contacts, images, music and others are fine.
Please advice what procedure I need to follow as I am not familiar with what files are safe to delete. Is it safe to just do this:
Settings > SD & Phone Storage >Factory Data Reset ?
Thank you for your advice!
I would like to know this as well because out of a 8GB SD card (7.59GB) i only have 549MB remaining and i only have 1 nandroid back up and 3 GB of music on the phone.
That's a loaded question dependant upon what apps are installed. Many apps create folders and populate the sd card in some form.
Best I can tell you, mount the storage and copy the sd content to your computer. Erase the sdcard content and see what happens after reboot. Should only potentially bother 3rd party apps.
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App
Thanks for the advice BelacNongaw.
I thought about that too but I was thinking maybe there are some system files or essential files that MUST be in the SD card. And also, wouldn't deleting everything in the SD card also delete my nandroid backup? And Clockwork? <-They do reside in the SD card, yes?
Let me reiterate please: I want a 'brand new' phone while keeping only my last nandroid backup Will a factory reset do?
Thanks again everyone!
I had the same problem and the only thing I noticed was nandroid backups take a lot of space and also apps that have been deleted keep their folders in the sd card
Sent from my HTC Liberty using XDA App
Okay this is what I did:
1. Back up my SDcard to the computer (plug it in, mount as disk drive, copy all contents to a folder on the desktop).
2. Restart the Aria in Recovery mode (Vol. down while Power up)
3. Go to Recovery > Partitions > Format SD Card
Now I have 1.84gb of SD storage with these folders (viewed in Astro):
1. .footprints / thumbnails / voices
2. LOST.DIR
3. tmp / .astro / astro
Haven't tested everything yet but eBuddy and Market are doing well, downloading and app installation are running fine too.
Now I'm quite concerned about the following:
1. Does this mean that I do not have clockwork anymore? Because there was a 'clockworkmod' folder in the SDcard before I formatted it.
2. Am I screwed?
Thank you for any suggestions/advice. I hope this thread can offer some helpful tips to those who need it in the future.
You are fine. The clockworkmod folder is where rom manager downloads and your nandroid backups are stored. You can just copy it back or rom manager will generate it again next time you nandroid backup.
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App
Thanks for reminding me BelacNongaw.
I just made a nandroid backup of my bare minimum Aria, and it automaticall created a clockworkmod folder in the SDcard with the md5 file.
Anyways, it's great to have all these space now
Great post guys I was wondering this myself. I recently rooted my inspire 4g to factory restore but all 3rd party apps are still on the sd card and i have no intention of re-installing any of them so i am looking for a safe way to delete unnessesary folders without deleting the vital ones, ill give your suggestions a try.
Technically you can safely delete everything that's on the sd card. Android will automatically create whatever folders it needs. Of course you'll lose any data saved to the sd, but you wont mess up your phone at all.
Sent from my cm7 Aria.
i have a g2 but i have the same thoughts i want the space back from sd card not worried about loosing any thing just dont want to mess the phone up
Don't worry. SD card is totally an external of the phone. Delete everything, it doesn't matter. And backup your needed files to any place you like. You can move them back to your reformatted SD card whenever you like.
Hy guys, there is something I dont understand about nandroid. I flashed my rom, kernel, downloaded apps, change setting, homescreen etc. and now i would like to back it up exactly as it is. I read that nandroid is best for that but it doesnt backup sd card? whats up with that. I look at my sd card with root explorer and there are many folder and files that were made by apps when they were insteled on the phone.Does it backup that also? Also i have many apps, apps2sd, will it make backup of them also?
It won't back up your entire phone onto your phone. It would get really big with all the music, videos, etc, that a person might have. If you have your external card mounted then you can attach via a USB cable to your computer then either with adb or with a file manager copy all of /mnt/sdcard youlle get the important things that nandroid does not. The exception I can think of is that it doesn't seem to back up your modem firmware, so if your partial to a particular one then just have it as a flashable file.
Ok, thanks, so it doesnt backup internal sd card because someone told me yesterday that it does? If i copy the entire sd card to PC and latter copy it back to mobile like that will it work. First i recover nandroid backup, than i format internal sd card and than copy all the files back to sd card.
A Nandroid backup will copy a lot, but it can't copy everything or there wouldn't be room on the device for it to be practical. It is quite supprising how much it will keep; it just isn't a complete backup solution is all.
Addressing your question though, as for copying the entire sd card, you really only need to copy the folder /mnt/sdcard or /sdcard ; the latter is a symlink to /mnt/sdcard
If you try to copy your entire sdcard then it is possible to end up with data from partitions that will take forever to copy and that you really don't want, for example /proc on the phone is just kernel information that doesn't even exist when the phone is turned off. To keep things simple, everything is part of the ROM and kernel except for /mnt/sdcard and in the case of and external sd card, /mnt/sdcard/external_sd but the latter (/mnt/sdcard/external_sd) will be copied along with the first one provided it is mounted when you do it.
The only other exception to what needs to be backed up is a partition called /efs and there are various tutorials with various methods about how to do that. I would follow one of them rather than just copying the data out as its a partition that holds unique information about the phone that it can't function with if it gets messed up. This is more immediately important and I think there's quite simply some apps that will do it for you if you look at the sticky threads here. The files will be on your phone though so you'lle want to pull them off on to your computer for sure.
As for your friend's advice, though, you won't typically ever need more than a Nandroid backup unless something happens to that other data, for example if there's filesystem corruption. If you do a restore of your ROM then it still retains all your music and photo goodies or whatever, app settings get wiped though where they are retained with Nandroid. The only thing that I'd worry about is if the impending update to Ice Cream Sandwhich somehow wipes suff, or if you play around at the command line a lot make a mistake unintentionally. If it weren't for the updates and beta ICS releases we're seeing then I'd simply be telling you not to worry about it, but to back things up and be done with it.
By the way, doesn't Kies back things up? I don't have it so I don't remember but it seems like that's how I initially got things onto it and that it has a sync option. Perhaps this is enough?....
Igor 3 said:
Hy guys, there is something I dont understand about nandroid. I flashed my rom, kernel, downloaded apps, change setting, homescreen etc. and now i would like to back it up exactly as it is. I read that nandroid is best for that but it doesnt backup sd card? whats up with that. I look at my sd card with root explorer and there are many folder and files that were made by apps when they were insteled on the phone.Does it backup that also? Also i have many apps, apps2sd, will it make backup of them also?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man just do the backup and don't worry about the sd card files/folders. The reason it doesn't back them up is because they stay there anyway. Eg, if you uninstall an app, a folder that was created by it on your sd card is still there. Flashing firmware, including wipe versions doesn't touch the 11.5gb internal storage or external storage.
BTW, most of my internal sd card is used up and 25gb is used up on my external card. If the backup was to include those a 64gb memory card wouldn't be enough.
Between the S1 and S2 I've backed up and restored over 100 times, including after fully wiping the phone (but not formatting sd cards) and the phone always looks and functions exactly as before, including apps.
So, only copy memory card files to PC if you intend to format the internal / external cards or if you are worried you might lose stuff if the memories become corrupted.
Sent from my GT-I9100T
Thanks guys for you help. I dont use Kies also so i dont know and, yes, i format sd card before flashing every rom so i would probably format it also before making restore of nandroid backup. Also when i delete some app a delete a folder created by it on sd card. OK, than i will make a nandroid backup and copy mnt/sdcard on PC so if it ever gets corupted i can restore everything. As for efs folder, Neak kerenl made a backup of that automatic so i just made a copy of that on PC.
Every so often I go though the folders on the sd cards and clean them up a little but I have never formatted the sd cards. I don't really think you should do it with every flash.
Sent from my GT-I9100T
Not my first root and custom ROM install but first one in 4 years. Much has changed...
So, I installed TWRP backed up and installed Nougat. Now I'm trying to revert back to my original system but twrp shows only storage media Internal/external with small sizes and no content. However, in twrp file manager I can see all the folders and files in both internal and external sd card.
I had made a full backup of original Android 4.4.2 (~6GB) with latest twrp (18) that I stored on my external sd card (see screenshot, I hope everything is there!).
What do I need to do to be able to see the relevant file(s) for restoring?
I also have adb installed and it sees my Note II alright but I have no idea how I can use it to make twrp see and restore to my previous state.
If you can help please bear in mind that I'm not very familiar with most of the current developers stuff. Thanks.
If there's a problem with restoring from what I have, I would do a factory reset as I have also saved my most important files separately. I am reluctant though as I have read too much about bricking the phone doing that. Pointers?
Do I have a valid twrp backup in the first place?
This is the page whose instructions I followed. https://www.androidexplained.com/move-twrp-backup/
I backed up directly to external sdcard where a twrp folder with subfolder backups was created. I never had a path with media/0 something that I see people talking about to restore from.
Can somebody please confirm that I have a full backup according to the screenshot I did?
Ah well, live and learn. Just to say that I'm not the only with this problem and it's not phone related either. People with this problem post all over the net! However, iIt looks as though there is no real solution. I would have expected to have a full restore when I hit the backup button in TWRP! This is total BS!
I NEVER had any probs with CWM in the past and I tried a lot of Custom ROMs. It's a pity it's discontinued.
TWRP for your phone doesn't support restoring from external SD cards? That would be odd. I've always found TWRP to be vastly superior to CWM and have installed it on dozens of phones. Why not just move the subfolders to the TWRP folder on the internal storage? The main cause of this isn't the recovery as much as Samsung incorrectly namied the different partitions vs the way Google and custom roms based off of AOSP / CM / etc.
OK, I did the following: took another external SD card and formatted it in the phone. Did another backup with twrp. Uploaded my first backup into the same folder on SD card. Booted into twrp, wiped, and voilá, I found backup folder.
Was able to restore and it looked ok BUT! after seconds the apps one by one started stopping. Now I am in a bootloop with all the apps stopping. I can't get to anywhere.
So much for a "smooth" TWRP backup.
ETA: Finally, I also wiped internal storage and am back to factory settings. Thank god I had the sense to save important folders separately. It's really really important to chose more than one way to backup your files (I also did a myphone explorer backup before the twrp one).
Hello!
I have a somewhat unusual challenge on my hand and am hoping there is a solution, however after days of searching I am unable to come up with a clear or consistent answer. I got a shiny new SM-T580 around the holidays, and immediately set to work on installing twrp, rooting the device, etc. to be able to use it for my needs. My device is OEM unlocked, rooted, has Xposed installed, and has a ton of hard to come by apps installed, as well as a substantial amount of important personal files on it. On Saturday, I went to flash a zip file to install a tool pertaining to ROM modification and the install unexpectedly failed because TWRP couldn't mount my /data partition; I realized I had completely forgotten to format /data after disabling encryption back when I first did everything, and my /data partition was still encrypted.
That being said, I really do need to remove the encryption, but I really need to preserve my data also. To make matters more complicated, I have enabled adoptable storage, and am using a 64gb card formatted as internal storage, with about ~30gb data on it. I have backed up my personal files to the cloud, but now am trying to figure out how to move my apps and app data. Ideally I would like to preserve my entire existing directory structure, as well as home screen configurations, etc. I am left with a few questions that are preventing me from proceeding:
How do I determine which data is stored on the actual external SD card? From my own poking around, it looks as though the external SD is /mnt/expand/aa11a11a-blah-blah-blah/ but I am not positive. If that is my SD card, can I simply move it to a new install? I assume the SD card is also encrypted, as I am guessing the string following /mnt/expand/ is an encrypted serial number or something of the sort. If that is the case, can I simply copy the files from the above directory, and then copy them back in after formatting the card? Beyond this, as far as what is actually stored on my phone, is there a means of backing up and restoring the files and directory structure and having it all still work and point to the right places? I don't know how the system links the adopted storage and just feel like I'm in over my head when it comes to understanding the nitty-gritty of Android file system internals. I would simply backup the whole partition and then restore it but then I would be back to square one with the encryption. I am competent with TWRP, ADB, ODIN, etc and would be very, very happy if anyone could point me in the right direction on this, even if the solution is complex. If I am unable to figure this out before the weekend I am going to have to manually back up all apps and click through 300+ apk files. I do also have titanium backup but I am kind of in a bind with storage space vs backup size. Anyhow, if you made it this far thank you so much for reading and I am looking forward to your replies! :highfive
Edit: This was intended for the Galaxy Tab A forum. Mods, please move this thread to Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Questions & Answers if possible, though the question should pertain to both device series on 6.0+. Thank you!
I've just tried to do a backup on my NT running AOSP 7.0. I have TWRP 3.0.2-0 in emmc.
The first attempt I tried to go to the "external SD" card since there is lots of room there. Everything seemed to go just fine although I thought the backup size was a bit small, just over 2 gb. On reboot I could not find the backup anywhere. I tried ES File Explorer and the native File Explorer. No sign of anything like "/external_sd/TWRP/Backups/" etc., and no sign in ES File Explorer that another 2 gb chunk was occupied by something.
So I went back into TWRP and looked at the File Manager there. Not only could I not find evidence of the backup but every folder listed showed as empty! Well, I think TWRP is often very squirrely, so I was not too worried about that. I went to try another backup and saw that by the mysterious accounting of TWRP, I had about 2 gb less storage space on the "micro SD card" than before I tried the first backup. Hmm..... When I tried a second backup, it failed, stating there was no space (despite there being over 13 gb). Finally, I decided to try a backup to internal. This went just fine, but the folder for storage of the backup was supposed to be something like "/emmc_unused/TWRP/Backup/" etc., and--you guessed it, was not visible in any file manager of any sort.
After a reboot I went back into TWRP and to my horror now the internal storage shows about 2 gb less!!!!!! ARGH! Where are these files that are taking up space but nowhere to be found?!
Edit: AHA! Is there a manual somewhere for TWRP? This time I tried "Mount" for internal. Very strange. There is a screen to select what to "mount", but not a button or something to say "now do it!". Anyway, once I did that, I was able to see both of the mysterious locations mentioned above and delete both backups, freeing up the 2 gb in each "location". But I still have no idea how to make a backup and put it somewhere I can actually get at it. I generally off-load backups and store them on my PC.
nmyshkin said:
I've just tried to do a backup on my NT running AOSP 7.0. I have TWRP 3.0.2-0 in emmc.
...
But I still have no idea how to make a backup and put it somewhere I can actually get at it. I generally off-load backups and store them on my PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried using a PC sdcard reader to read the sdcard?
I have had problems finding/accessing from my PC some of the files on my HD+ that I had created while I was using terminal emulator (which I suspect having to do with file ownership and access permission setting but which I have not found a solution for), but I have always been able to read and copy CWM/TWRP backup files on sdcard by using a card reader.
digixmax said:
Have you tried using a PC sdcard reader to read the sdcard?
I have had problems finding/accessing from my PC some of the files on my HD+ that I had created while I was using terminal emulator (which I suspect having to do with file ownership and access permission setting but which I have not found a solution for), but I have always been able to read and copy CWM/TWRP backup files on sdcard by using a card reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OS warns that the SD card will become encrypted and unreadable by external means if you choose to extend the memory rather than using the card in the traditional format. So, no, you can't just pop it out and read it on a PC.
The really confounding part is that even a backup saved to internal cannot be copied off. The directory seems to be invisible to everything but TWRP.
Really feeling buyers remorse on that decision but I'm afraid of the damage if I revert the card. I can backup content I've stored there but there's no way to know how much the OS has placed there. All that would be lost and some apps might be messed up. Ugh.