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Is there currently a recovery ROM for the g-Tablet version shipped by woot.com? This is a 3389 ROM with some customizations. Most, or possibly all, of these can be replicated easily since they consist primarily of some home screen setup, links, and a few apps including the Kindle reader, ColorNote, and Pandora.
Following the recommendation to do a data wipe after installing a replacement ROM appears now to mean that even with the backup.zip from my wife's unmolested tablet I'm unable to return the tablet to its actual original state.
If there is not, I currently have one woot.com g-Tablet that is unopened since my wife ordered one for herself after I'd ordered one for each of us. I'm planning to sell it, but if I can create a backup ROM without messing the tablet up for the eventual purchaser I'm willing to try.
I'd like the same thing, if you come across one or make one yourself.
I ended up doing a Format SD Card, thinking it literally meant the external MicroSD Card I had put in the device, because I had read this may help prevent force closes, but it formatted the internal storage which had my stock backup on it and left my MicroSD card alone. I should have copied that over to my PC before wiping anything, just in case, but I'm so used to Android phone hacking that I thought I could get away with it.
I had a ton of force closes with TNT Lite and rebooted, hoping it would help, but then it got stuck in a reboot-loop. So I ended up repartitioning the internal space (thus wiping it AGAIN ::sigh: and using nvflash to restore bekit version 1105 (nvflash_gtablet_2010110500) and OTA updating.
Woot ROM
Going to make one now. Finished charging my "woot" g tab and booted once to make sure it worked. Just installed clockwork. Making backup. Let me know if you still need it.
jm20 said:
Going to make one now. Finished charging my "woot" g tab and booted once to make sure it worked. Just installed clockwork. Making backup. Let me know if you still need it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I do, please.
uploading now....
uploaded
http://www.mediafire.com/?poe59nppdfqhizn
jm20 said:
http://www.mediafire.com/?poe59nppdfqhizn
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for doing that. Unfortunately, it doesn't restore the tablet to its shipped state.
Edit: scratch that - I did eventually get it to do exactly that.
mstevens said:
Thank you for doing that. Unfortunately, it doesn't restore the tablet to its shipped state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd originally assumed the way to use this would be to rename it to update.zip and use it in recovery. That seemed to flash something, but did not come close to restoring to the shipped state.
Next, I realized it was a clockworkmod backup and figured I could extract it to my clockworkmod backup directory and run a restore from it. This just gave me an MD5 checksum error.
Any more thoughts on how to use this?
Edit: see my later post. I did get it to work.
Do you need the ROM?
My woot Tablet Reset after the 3rd power cycle and restored itself to something besides the original shape I received it in. I thought it was ridiculous as it would not show the "Stock" Videos it was shipped with. Angry Birds also did not work originally. After it Reset things worked. I would return it in the state it is and say it didn't work almost at all when it first arrived.
The original active wallpaper was kind of cool though.
TomRathbun said:
I would return it in the state it is and say it didn't work almost at all when it first arrived.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My g-Tablet is working fine. It's just a bit messed up in terms of applications and links after I flashed a few ROMs and now I'm having trouble getting it back to its original state.
TomRathbun said:
My woot Tablet Reset after the 3rd power cycle and restored itself to something besides the original shape I received it in. I thought it was ridiculous as it would not show the "Stock" Videos it was shipped with. Angry Birds also did not work originally. After it Reset things worked. I would return it in the state it is and say it didn't work almost at all when it first arrived.
The original active wallpaper was kind of cool though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine was the same way. I didn't wait until it was fully charged until powering it up and it had angrybirds and some other stuff loaded on it. None of it would run though, it would just force close out. After turning it off, waiting for it to fully charge, and then turning it back on did I get put through the new user wizard and everything worked right.
would these work?
Hello, I was curious to know if you had seen (and if it would work) the viewsonic stock Roms that are mentioned on another post in the g tablet section of this site. I can't post links yet but there is a sticky called "viewsonic G-Tablet ROMs frequently asked questions (read this first)" this is posted in the G tablet general section.
The 3rd post down in that sticky has "gtablet recovery firmware images (official viewsonic images)" and there are 3 versions available to download the latest being 3316. Could you flash to this and then do ota updates to get to the current version? I'm sure you'd have to get a few of the apps back yourself (angry birds, Pandora, whatever else came on it) but wouldn't this get you pretty close to how it was when you got the gtab? I'm new to all this and am just throwing this out as a suggestion. I'm curious to know if this is all you'd need though.
barcod21 said:
Hello, I was curious to know if you had seen (and if it would work) the viewsonic stock Roms that are mentioned on another post in the g tablet section of this site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those work pretty much as expected, but they don't restore the tablet to its state as shipped by Woot. Not having seen any other g-Tablet, I can't be certain but I strongly suspect they do restore the tablet to what it would have been if I'd gotten it from Sears or someplace. I already know I can rebuild it. I'm just looking for the lazy way and, ideally, to get it *completely* back to stock, i.e., any updated drivers or other things that may not be immediately obvious.
So, I did get jm20's file to work for restoring my woot.com g-Tablet to its original shipped state. There may be several ways to do this, but I'll outline what worked for me.
- installed clockworkmod and booted into cwm recovery.
- did a data wipe and formatted all partitions then rebooted, whereupon I naturally got an error.
- rebooted into APX mode.
- performed an NVFlash restore.
- as soon as the tablet rebooted and asked if I wanted to connect via USB, I connected without doing any setup.
- via USB to the tablet, created a directory clockworkmod in the root of sdcard (on the tablet, not the removable SDHC card) and a subdirectory backup within that.
- on my computer, extracted the directory 2009-01-01.00.26.55 from the downloaded .zip file.
- copied that directory via USB into /clockworkmod/backup.
- reinstalled clockworkmod.
- rebooted into cwm and ran a restore of the directory I'd copied.
At this point the tablet now looks and acts mostly like it did when I first opened it. The only problem is that OTA updates no longer work because of clockworkmod. I addressed this via NVFlash using the following in a command window:
- nvflash.exe --bl bootloader.bin --download 9 recovery.img
whew!
Sorry about the lack of instructions
I am really busy with a bunch of other stuff, and I'm just playing with the G-tab when I take a break. The file I uploaded is as you figured out just a direct copy of the folder that clockwork recovery made when I told it to backup the "unused woot g-tab"
Like I said I only booted it up once to make sure it worked and then I immediately made the backup which is why the date says 2009.
After the backup was done, I copied the folder that clockwork made which contained the backup files to my desktop. I then zipped it up and uploaded it to mediafire.
Therefore the zip file is not a file that clockwork can use to restore the ROM, however if you extract the folder/files from the zip file and copy them to the g-tab, clockwork will recognize the folder and will do a full restore from that folder / files.
Sorry for the confusion.
A few other things:
I bought two of these from Sears as soon as they came out (late October 2010). I opened one and tried to use it. The stock ROM barely worked. It was basically useless. I knew the hardware was great but it was crippled by the ROM. I installed clockwork and flashed a few ROMs and found Vegan to be the best of the bunch, however even that left much to be desired as it was still very early on in the whole scheme of things.
After two days of using the one I had opened, things weren't looking good and I returned the unopened second one.
After about 10 days of trying to see the positives, I couldn't take it any longer and the first had to go back also. Unfortunately I had rooted it and installed clockwork and I simply couldn't bring myself to return it in that condition so I spent somewhere around 12+ hours reading various forums (mostly this one, android forums, and android central) figuring out how to completely return the unit to "stock". No traces of clockwork or any other boot manager and I put a clean stock ROM back on it.
Two reasons why I mention all of this:
1. If someone is needing to do this, it can be done unfortunately I have no idea how I did it and didn't bother to keep the files or information because I swore I'd never buy another G-tab (woot made a liar out of me).
2. If you are considering using an older "stock" ROM, don't waste your time. The woot ROM is actually pretty good. Had I known the woot ROM was halfway decent I would have bought two of these. Any of the newer ROMs are probably better than what I initally experienced.
Lastly, if anyone cares; I am currently running Calkulin's ROM with Clemsyn's kernel and I must say I am impressed. The unit is stable and very fast. Those guys have done some great work. Finally some great software that can take advantage of the hardware. Again, had I known things had gotten so much better I'd have ordered two.
If you guys are running something else and you like it let me know, I haven't had time to mess with the other ROMs.
OK, I have got to get back to work. Hope this helps.
Clarification
jm20 said:
Going to make one now. Finished charging my "woot" g tab and booted once to make sure it worked. Just installed clockwork. Making backup. Let me know if you still need it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brand new Android user here. My Woot gtablet reset itself also after the third reboot to something other than the original. If I figure out how to insert your Woot ROM zip file, this will restore the gtablet to it's orginial state?
Thanks
TomRathbun said:
My woot Tablet Reset after the 3rd power cycle and restored itself to something besides the original shape I received it in. I thought it was ridiculous as it would not show the "Stock" Videos it was shipped with. Angry Birds also did not work originally. After it Reset things worked. I would return it in the state it is and say it didn't work almost at all when it first arrived.
The original active wallpaper was kind of cool though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this experience as well. (This Woot tab is my second g-tablet.) I updated it immediately upon the first boot, then rebooted. One or two reboots later, a setup screen magically appeared. After going through the setup process it seems that all of the original woot settings were now gone.
It also seems that Adobe Flash is no longer installed, and has to be re-installed. I haven't tried Angry Birds yet, but I believe that the latest firmware update comes with that pre-installed. Flash can be re-installed by downloading it from the ViewSonic g-tablet "Favorites" page, or use this link and reboot after installation:
http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/download/temp/1291899570_Adobe_Flash_Player_10.1.95.1.apk
As for being able to return to a "stock" firmware, I always save the updates before allowing it to install them. I believe they can be found in the /cache folder after it downloads, and must be copied to external storage before you run the update. I haven't actually tried to use these to restore to a stock firmware, but I believe that you just copy it to /mnt/sdcard and rename it to update.zip.
These are the versions that I saved:
update-smb_a1002-2967-user.zip
update-smb_a1002-3053-user.zip
update-smb_a1002-3588-user.zip
Edit: None of these are the "Woot" version.
FYI - I just updated my T-Mobile SGS2. After the wipe and update, I'm unable to re-setup the application because I can't get another Serial and Activation Code from the SWTOR website.
Later I reloaded a custom ROM and tried to restore the app with Titanium, but I keep getting an "An unexpected error has occured."
So in short, if you are expecting an update for your phone, or load custom ROMs a lot, DO NOT USE THE ANDROID AUTHENTICATOR APP (until those awesome hackers find out what going on).
Fortunately I was rooted and able to restore a full system backup, to get the app back running correctly. But now I'm forced to run an older version of software on my phone.
Hopefully CS can help with a better solution or App.
I wrote down the key information I entered into the app when I set it up. I don't know if that will work later on though.
The other thing I have going for me... is that both my phone and tablet are configured for it. I did them both at the same time. That way, if one device is lost or stolen, or gets wiped, I can rely on the other.
khart1978 said:
FYI - I just updated my T-Mobile SGS2. After the wipe and update, I'm unable to re-setup the application because I can't get another Serial and Activation Code from the SWTOR website.
Later I reloaded a custom ROM and tried to restore the app with Titanium, but I keep getting an "An unexpected error has occured."
So in short, if you are expecting an update for your phone, or load custom ROMs a lot, DO NOT USE THE ANDROID AUTHENTICATOR APP (until those awesome hackers find out what going on).
Fortunately I was rooted and able to restore a full system backup, to get the app back running correctly. But now I'm forced to run an older version of software on my phone.
Hopefully CS can help with a better solution or App.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't restore the data files from an different rom, delete the data files in titanium backup and the app should work again (you just have to configure it again)
Gesendet von meinem GT-I9100 mit Tapatalk
wooki said:
You can't restore the data files from an different rom, delete the data files in titanium backup and the app should work again (you just have to configure it again)
Gesendet von meinem GT-I9100 mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes but what ur not getting is that in order to set it up again u have to be able to log into ur account which u cant do without a security key
I havent checked yet, but i will soon. Is there a way to shut off the security key (temporarily, of course) so that we can just shut it off, load a rom, turn it back on and "re-marry" the app? Might not be great for nightly users, but I'd like to try some different roms without losing the ability to play my game.
Psionfenix said:
I havent checked yet, but i will soon. Is there a way to shut off the security key (temporarily, of course) so that we can just shut it off, load a rom, turn it back on and "re-marry" the app? Might not be great for nightly users, but I'd like to try some different roms without losing the ability to play my game.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only way to detach the security key atm is to phone support and have them remove it. I read somewhere that adding that functionality to the webpage is a high priority.
yeah. I got my ticket back about that. I went ahead and just ordered a standalone key. Not going to take the chance. haha
There must be a way to backup the application. Moving it to an emulator on my pc would be nice, but I couldn't do it...
Sanraith said:
There must be a way to backup the application. Moving it to an emulator on my pc would be nice, but I couldn't do it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any news about this?
Successfully Restored Authenticator
I know this post is old, but I've seen several similar posts concerning the same issue, and the resolution was calling Customer Support and having it removed. Anyway, I've restored the app successfully several times today. Last week, I contacted Titanium Track (Titanium Backup Support), and one of the suggestions they gave me led to an answer. "If you leave the app installed and just switch between the ROMs without a wipe, does the same problem happen or not?".
It indeed did continue to function. I then tried a "factory reset" and restoring the app, which led to the dreaded "unexpected error occurred". My next step involved, restoring all system app data/rebooting...and then the authenticator functioned. After a couple of hours, I narrowed down the 2nd app that needs to be restored. Under Titanium Backup it's - [SETTINGS/BLUETOOTH...-> "Settings Storage". By exploring this data using Titanium Backup, I saw one variable that I believe is the cause of the issue. "Android_ID".
Sorry, I can't post the link but this is from "adrynalyne" on Android Forums - "Warning. Do Not Share Nandroid Backups".
Even if your apps aren't there, and no personal information has been entered on a fresh wipe.
If someone asks for a stock Nandroid backup, kindly tell them to get lost
contagous and I learned the hard way. I sent him a completely tweaked and clean nandroid, with none of my personal info or anything like that. He has been using it and it works great.
Until AppBrain fast web installer is used. See, it IDs your device by the Android_ID, which is unique to every phone, or is supposed to be.
Nandroid backups will record this device ID, and clone it onto another device. Well, when contagous installs an app using the web installer, I get it. Without a prompt or nothing.
While I can do the same thing, and it was fun sending him pron apps and sexy men wallpapers, it has a real potential for a security nitemare. I trust contagous, but let this serve as a warning to everyone. Its also not so simple as installing another ROM and factory reset. So far as I can tell, as long as you stay on the same build OS, you will keep the same ID. The only thing that changed my ID to something else was going back to 2.1.
So friends, don't let friends share nandroids. If you do, play it smart, and delete all but the system and boot images and recalculate the md5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that the Star Wars: The Old Republic Security Key app is looking at the Android_ID key for a match, and then bombing out. This is only a theory from my experience. But I would suggest to anyone that's willing to try it to attempt to restore both the SWORSK and Settings Storage "SETTINGS/BLUETOOTH", rebooting, and see what happens. Of course, make a NANDROID backup before trying this!
Cbjohns said:
I know this post is old, but I've seen several similar posts concerning the same issue, and the resolution was calling Customer Support and having it removed. Anyway, I've restored the app successfully several times today. Last week, I contacted Titanium Track (Titanium Backup Support), and one of the suggestions they gave me led to an answer. "If you leave the app installed and just switch between the ROMs without a wipe, does the same problem happen or not?".
It indeed did continue to function. I then tried a "factory reset" and restoring the app, which led to the dreaded "unexpected error occurred". My next step involved, restoring all system app data/rebooting...and then the authenticator functioned. After a couple of hours, I narrowed down the 2nd app that needs to be restored. Under Titanium Backup it's - [SETTINGS/BLUETOOTH...-> "Settings Storage". By exploring this data using Titanium Backup, I saw one variable that I believe is the cause of the issue. "Android_ID".
Sorry, I can't post the link but this is from "adrynalyne" on Android Forums - "Warning. Do Not Share Nandroid Backups".
I believe that the Star Wars: The Old Republic Security Key app is looking at the Android_ID key for a match, and then bombing out. This is only a theory from my experience. But I would suggest to anyone that's willing to try it to attempt to restore both the SWORSK and Settings Storage "SETTINGS/BLUETOOTH", rebooting, and see what happens. Of course, make a NANDROID backup before trying this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some good news. I requested for the ability to restore the "Android_ID" be added to Titanium Backup, and they have made it so. I tested a couple times and can verify that it is the Android_ID that this app relies on. So for those out there, give it a try if you wish. I should note though that may have to switch the time sync "from auto to manual, then back to auto" to be able to get the site to accept the key. But yes, restoration of the Security Key has been achieved! Good luck everyone!
@Cbjohns
It's working!
I've got nandroid-backup from some months ago, when I used to play SWTOR. Now on the new ROM I couldn't make it working.
So I
1. nandroid-backup this ROM
2. nandroid-restore previous one
3. backup this SETTINGS/BLUETOOTH(only data) and SWTOR app(data+app)
4. nandroid-restore again present ROM
5. restore SETTINGS/BLUETOOTH(only data) and SWTOR app(data+app)
6. reboot(without it, it doesn't work) my phone
-and it's working.
Thanks again!!
I recently got a new phone and had to call support every time I tried a new rom. This has saved me TONS of time, thank you so much!
Cbjohns said:
I know this post is old, but I've seen several similar posts concerning the same issue, and the resolution was calling Customer Support and having it removed. Anyway, I've restored the app successfully several times today. Last week, I contacted Titanium Track (Titanium Backup Support), and one of the suggestions they gave me led to an answer. "If you leave the app installed and just switch between the ROMs without a wipe, does the same problem happen or not?".
It indeed did continue to function. I then tried a "factory reset" and restoring the app, which led to the dreaded "unexpected error occurred". My next step involved, restoring all system app data/rebooting...and then the authenticator functioned. After a couple of hours, I narrowed down the 2nd app that needs to be restored. Under Titanium Backup it's - [SETTINGS/BLUETOOTH...-> "Settings Storage". By exploring this data using Titanium Backup, I saw one variable that I believe is the cause of the issue. "Android_ID".
Sorry, I can't post the link but this is from "adrynalyne" on Android Forums - "Warning. Do Not Share Nandroid Backups".
I believe that the Star Wars: The Old Republic Security Key app is looking at the Android_ID key for a match, and then bombing out. This is only a theory from my experience. But I would suggest to anyone that's willing to try it to attempt to restore both the SWORSK and Settings Storage "SETTINGS/BLUETOOTH", rebooting, and see what happens. Of course, make a NANDROID backup before trying this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi everyone.
This may make me sound like dumb, what yeah, sometimes people make noobish mistake. Please help me!
This is what happened:
While I was researching about Rooting and Custom ROM and stuff, I saw a vid where a person goes into the console of the phone by pressing 3 buttons: Menu + Volume down + Power. I tried to do the same, just for the heck of it.
So, while I was starting the phone by pressing those 3 buttons, I was expecting I would be taken in console mode. BUT NO! After a long boot up, it greeted me with a Select language option.. and after that it asks me to set date and time formats etc..
It was then that hit me, that I may have hard reseted the phone! I googled and came across a vid, which explained the same thing, that, that procedure was for hard resetting and not going into the console mode!
Now is there an option to revert back this hard resetting, since I DONT want to erase the contents of my phone! :'(
My phone is still lying in that menu for about an hour now.
well if u saw closely that procedure wud have also explained that you should install the console looking thing before u start it?
u hard resetted it
So, pressing those 3 buttons just hard resets it? Instantly? Doesn't ask for ANY confirmation?
I don't care about apps, those can be re-downloaded, and contacts can be resync with google account (probably). But all those files which I created through native apps is gone?
Isn't there some recover apps?? Can't I still cancel it, since I haven't progressed into the wizard thing which showed up after that procedure?
guess not...
sorry but maybe you should make fresh start ....
maybe the apps arent gone, check it..
Ok.. probably I should make a fresh start. But I still have one question.
AFAIK, hard resetting has reset the phone memory. So, the data inside card is sill intact. So, could it happen, that if I install the same app again which was there before, it takes the settings for the same from card?
I think it maybe the possibility, even a vague one.
Just for the record, my phone was running on stock ROM. And I hadn't even rooted the device prior to it.
u have any other choices? i dont think so...
Thanks everyone for the replies.
So I decided to make a fresh start. Now that I have a chance to make a new start, I ensuring to take following steps so that no data loss occur from next time:
1. Syncing with google account already takes care of contacts, but extra precautions needs to be given when adding new contact. While adding new contact it should not be stored in SIM or Phone, rather the google account. Also apps have no reason to be lost since those can be reinstalled from market.
2. Using cloud apps, such as
-> Remember The Milk, which syncs tasks and notes to cloud
-> Google Plus, which syncs images with google account
-> SMS Backup+, which syncs Messages with GMail
If someone know how to backup scores of game apps, that would be highly useful!
Vyom said:
Thanks everyone for the replies.
So I decided to make a fresh start. Now that I have a chance to make a new start, I ensuring to take following steps so that no data loss occur from next time:
1. Syncing with google account already takes care of contacts, but extra precautions needs to be given when adding new contact. While adding new contact it should not be stored in SIM or Phone, rather the google account. Also apps have no reason to be lost since those can be reinstalled from market.
2. Using cloud apps, such as
-> Remember The Milk, which syncs tasks and notes to cloud
-> Google Plus, which syncs images with google account
-> SMS Backup+, which syncs Messages with GMail
If someone know how to backup scores of game apps, that would be highly useful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root it and install Titanium Backup, you can backup apps and app data and restore it all later on. It will save you a lot of trouble. We all make some mistakes at some point, sorry about your situation, but hey at least you can start with a clean slate now and on Android that's always great
Sent from my LG-VM701 Rooted Stock via Tapatalk
Thanks for the kind words.
I have just began taking my baby steps into the world of Custom Rom. But before all that I need to root the device.
I am planning to follow this guide: www <dot> addictivetips <dot> com/mobile/how-to-root-install-clockworkmod-recovery-on-lg-optimus-one/
But the comments there are really scaring me! I don't want to brick the device. But it's a chance that I HAVE to take.
Any idea what application could I use to successfully root my P500 which has the highest success rate. Following are the details about my phone:
Android version is: 2.2.2
Kernel version: 2.6.32.9
Built Number: FRG83
Software Version: V10e-MAR-28-2011.
gingerbreak....
ccdreadcc said:
gingerbreak....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks buddy. I was successful in rooting my phone with gingerbreak! And then I took a titanium and a nandroid backup.
Now proceeding with removing the crapwares and maybe installing custom ROM.
Can I upgrade to gingerbread easily?
Vyom said:
Thanks buddy. I was successful in rooting my phone with gingerbreak! And then I took a titanium and a nandroid backup.
Now proceeding with removing the crapwares and maybe installing custom ROM.
Can I upgrade to gingerbread easily?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Flash a custom rom which uses gingerbread
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
Another easy tip which requires no data or wifi connection to backup contacts..
Export to sd card.. <it saved my life really..
I really think syncing contacts to Google account is the BEST way to keep it in safe place.
And after the Nandroid backup, I don't think, I can loose anything now!
I made a hash of rooting my phone after a number of posts said that backing up shouldn't be necessary (silly me). Once I had done the PG image flash I ended up with a version of Android that was missing all my games and the apps that I had previously installed. Data was still on the SD card but no sign of apks for the games. Not sure what other stuff might have been missing from 'out of the box' as it were but definitely Sims, NFS Shift and Spiderman 3D.
Before moving forward to try putting Leedroid on, I am considering trying to put one of the stock EU roms back over the top in the hope that it will give me access to the games, etc again so that I can do a backup and then try the whole rooting process all over again.
Could someone give me any idea of whether my games are gone forever or if I can salvage them somehow?
Your games and apps are gone. Before you flash any roms you really need to do a full wipe anyway so you're starting on a clean slate. A stock rom will have Spiderman in it though
We're comin from a pure power source.
-BA- said:
I made a hash of rooting my phone after a number of posts said that backing up shouldn't be necessary (silly me). Once I had done the PG image flash I ended up with a version of Android that was missing all my games and the apps that I had previously installed. Data was still on the SD card but no sign of apks for the games. Not sure what other stuff might have been missing from 'out of the box' as it were but definitely Sims, NFS Shift and Spiderman 3D.
Before moving forward to try putting Leedroid on, I am considering trying to put one of the stock EU roms back over the top in the hope that it will give me access to the games, etc again so that I can do a backup and then try the whole rooting process all over again.
Could someone give me any idea of whether my games are gone forever or if I can salvage them somehow?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your game data (savegames) is likely gone for good. The game file might still be in your sd card. When I installed warm 2.3 I noticed a folder on my sd that has all those Sprint apps. I think some other roms might make a folder like that too. Just find the folder with a file explorer and install the app you want.
-BA- said:
I made a hash of rooting my phone after a number of posts said that backing up shouldn't be necessary (silly me). Once I had done the PG image flash I ended up with a version of Android that was missing all my games and the apps that I had previously installed. Data was still on the SD card but no sign of apks for the games. Not sure what other stuff might have been missing from 'out of the box' as it were but definitely Sims, NFS Shift and Spiderman 3D.
Before moving forward to try putting Leedroid on, I am considering trying to put one of the stock EU roms back over the top in the hope that it will give me access to the games, etc again so that I can do a backup and then try the whole rooting process all over again.
Could someone give me any idea of whether my games are gone forever or if I can salvage them somehow?
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Click to collapse
Short answer, if the apps were stored on the /data partition and the RUU erased the /data partition, they are probably gone forever.
Longer answer: To give a little technical background, there are specific partitions on most Android devices. The "data" partition is where many 3rd party apps are installed to, along with their settings and the Android OS settings.
A stock RUU will always erase the /data partition because as stock, the device comes with a blank data partition.
Some apps allow themselves to be installed to the sdcard. As such, these won't be erased when an RUU wipes the data partition. Some apps store their settings on the sdcard. These also won't be erased by an RUU.
Hope that helps fill in some of the gaps!
-BA- said:
I made a hash of rooting my phone after a number of posts said that backing up shouldn't be necessary (silly me). Once I had done the PG image flash I ended up with a version of Android that was missing all my games and the apps that I had previously installed. Data was still on the SD card but no sign of apks for the games. Not sure what other stuff might have been missing from 'out of the box' as it were but definitely Sims, NFS Shift and Spiderman 3D.
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anything you bought from android market is linked to your google account not the phone so you can restore it after a wipe, after changing phone or even install them on multiple phones if they are registered to the same account.
just log on market.android.com, go to your library and force a reinstall for every piece of software you are missing.
things bought on other markets depend on the specific market policy, check with them.
as for those three games they comes with htc stock roms, I got them with an OTA update IIRCW so the only way to get them its if the rom compiler has included them (which I dont know if its legal, but lets not go there) or with a stock rom.
Really appreciate the replies guys. I have got my hands on the apks via a rom that was linked on the forums. I had hardly played them so losing save games isn't worry at all for me. Sadly I am not sure what else it might have wiped, I know I lost texts but I did have a backup .xml of those so only lost a few days worth.
The market is definitely confused because when I log onto android.market.com it shows all the ones I have downloaded but if I go into the market app on the phone it only shows the ones I have downloaded since the b0rked root.
No great loss though I think I am almost ready to shove a stock rom on and then restore the games later. Trying to decide between Leedroid and mikrunny's.
I've recently been getting into more security cautious habits with encryption and what not, due to this whole NSA/Big-brother is watching business... But I have a question (more may pop up as this discussion goes on). Sorry if I seem noob-y, I am still getting a hang of all this encryption business. But here's my first round (regarding just the files being backed up):
If I go ahead and do a full phone encryption with my GN2 where will I stand as far as backups to Dropbox/Copy/Google Drive/etc.?
I currently have photos and such backing up to copy, and I often move backups made through recovery to Dropbox and such. If I were to have photos automatically sync to copy or move system backups to dropbox wouldn't that render them basically useless as I am assuming they move out of the phone encrypted (not being decrypted as they exit).
The photos would be unusable anywhere besides my phone right? So moving them off my phone to share vacation photos for instance would be impossible, and if my phone were to crash they'd be irretrievable? Making the backup process pointless.
Wouldn't the back up be rendered useless as well, exactly when I might need said backup? If my phone were to ever crash or die for some reason, I would lose the encryption key, would even be able to do a full system restore through the recovery? It would seem that the encryption key wouldn't be kept with those back up files, so while it might place everything back in its correct place, it would still be unreadable. Or does it maybe keep the key in system files somewhere so that a full backup would restore the key as well?
And my second round of questions (regarding recoveries and what not):
I am also under the impression that I would not be able to flash through custom recovery either as the internal SD would be inaccessible from the recovery being it doesn't have the encryption key. I am currently running OmniROM and it is in a nightly stage still for my phone. I wouldn't be able to update nightly would I? I am assuming since it basically flashes/overwrites system each time, that I would be losing my encryption key and making everything besides system unusable then right?
And what about downloading ROMs to flash/update directly to my phone? As I download them from in browser or another app and they go to the default /downloads folder they would be encrypted. They wouldn't be accessible from there in recovery, but if I were to try and move them out of internal SD to the external SD they would retain encryption and still be inaccessible? So the only way to download ROMs and updates would be from PC and only move them to the external SD?
Overall, this seems to be crippling a lot of the way I use my phone...
Bump?
Sorry, this is already getting buried and I kinda want to know what's going on before I go ahead and do this...
Zombtastic said:
I've recently been getting into more security cautious habits with encryption and what not, due to this whole NSA/Big-brother is watching business... But I have a question (more may pop up as this discussion goes on). Sorry if I seem noob-y, I am still getting a hang of all this encryption business. But here's my first round (regarding just the files being backed up):
If I go ahead and do a full phone encryption with my GN2 where will I stand as far as backups to Dropbox/Copy/Google Drive/etc.?
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I'm not (yet) an expert on this, but when you've encrypted your device, it encrypts the file system on your internal memory and SD card. You have to enter a PIN/password when you turn on your device (and when it times out) to gain access. When the correct PIN is entered at boot time, the file system is available as normal - the underlying data is still encrypted, but the file system can unencrypt it in "real time" for use by apps and the system.
So that means that Dropbox et al all see your files as normal, and any copying you do from your device to something on the net (Drive, Dropbox, a server, etc.) works as normal - the data appears normal to the apps and is copied as normal. So photos would copy across as photos, music as music, etc.
Think of it like this: You can't speak Urdu, only English. There is a book you own that is written in Urdu that you want to tell someone about. You find a translator to read the book and tell you what it says. He reads the first page in Urdu, translates it in his head to English, and tells you what it says. You then tell your friend what it says (in English, of course). Your friend writes down what you told him, in English, then tells you something in reply. You tell your Urdu translator what your friend said (again, in English). Your Urdu translator then translates (in his head) what you said from English to Urdu, and writes it down in the book in Urdu.
At no time do you understand Urdu, nor does your friend. Your friend doesn't even know the book is written in Urdu and doesn't care. He never sees it or accesses it directly. If anyone ever steals your book, they can't read it unless they can read Urdu. The book is only useful to you and your friends if you have an Urdu translator sitting there in the loop. (the analogy is imperfect and incomplete but you get the idea).
So, getting back to your phone, if you have it encrypted, the underlying file system deals with translating things on the fly if you've given it the correct password at boot and login time. No apps ever know about the encryption - they just see data as normal (unencrypted). So any app that wants to copy a photo to Dropbox just sees a normal photo - it never sees the underlying encrypted data. But if you don't enter the correct password at boot time, the phone can't boot, and anyone trying to access the data on the phone won't be able to read it unless they know the password.
Does that help or confuse?
Zombtastic said:
I currently have photos and such backing up to copy, and I often move backups made through recovery to Dropbox and such. If I were to have photos automatically sync to copy or move system backups to Dropbox wouldn't that render them basically useless as I am assuming they move out of the phone encrypted (not being decrypted as they exit).
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Hmm, this does my head in a bit but lets untangle it:
- you boot into Recovery. The Recovery you're using (obviously) understands encrypted file systems (some versions of CWM do, some versions of TWRM don't for instance - see near the end of this post for a bit more on this). So when you boot into Recovery and enter your PIN/password, it can then read your file system. You can then do a Recovery-based backup of your file system (or individual files, though I'm not aware that you can do this). The backup it creates is written to the encrypted file system and thus encrypted with the same encryption keys used for everything else.
- You boot the phone back up as normal and enter your PIN/password, and start up Android. You then use Dropbox to copy the Recovery backup files to the cloud. So the question is, "Are these files encrypted?" and I think the answer is, "No". Why? Read the rest of this post and hopefully you'll work out the same conclusion. But I'm pretty sure that the data that ends up on the Cloud is not encrypted.
One general comment worth pointing out as an aside (sorry, this paragraph isn't really related to the above but I wanted to point this out somewhere and its still useful) is that each time you encrypt your phone, it creates a unique encryption key - even if you give it the same PIN/password to use. So if you're forced to rebuild/reflash/wipe your phone in the future, it won't be able to access any data that is still on there (in internal or SD memory) since it won't know the previous encryption key. So you'll have to wipe all data and start again. And at that point, if you choose to encrypt your fresh, newly initialized phone, it will have a new, unique encryption key that won't work on any encrypted data from previous. So if for instance, you plug in an SD card that was encrypted on your phone in an earlier ROM, it won't be readable even if you know the correct PIN/password, since your phone will be using a different underlying unique key.
Zombtastic said:
The photos would be unusable anywhere besides my phone right? So moving them off my phone to share vacation photos for instance would be impossible, and if my phone were to crash they'd be irretrievable? Making the backup process pointless.
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So, if you're following this, you'll now understand that moving your photos off your phone could be done two ways:
- while you're using the phone as normal (ie. you've booted it, entered your PIN/password, and copying your photos to Dropbox via an app while you're logged on. If you do it this way, you're simply copying photos as normal that can be viewed as normal in Dropbox.
- by copying backups generated while in Recovery. But Recovery will be firstly mounting the encrypted file system successfully (if you gave it the right PIN/password and your version of Recovery supports encryption), which means it can read your photos as normal files, then backs them up into its own normal Recovery file/folder structure and writes them to your encrypted file system, so the underlying data is encrypted unbeknownst to Recovery. Then when you boot up your phone and log in successfully to Android, you can access that data as normal (and unencrypted). So when you then copy it to Dropbox, all you're copying is normal Recovery-created backup files. The copied data won't be encrypted (unless Recovery encrypts them itself, independently, which I don't think it does). So you could copy this data to anybody's phone, so long as they were using a compatible Recovery version and probably compatible ROM.
Zombtastic said:
Wouldn't the back up be rendered useless as well, exactly when I might need said backup? If my phone were to ever crash or die for some reason, I would lose the encryption key, would even be able to do a full system restore through the recovery? It would seem that the encryption key wouldn't be kept with those back up files, so while it might place everything back in its correct place, it would still be unreadable. Or does it maybe keep the key in system files somewhere so that a full backup would restore the key as well?
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I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think your logic is correct. The backup would be useless if the phone loses the encryption key, which it would do if you re-initialized your phone and/or did a new encryption. So you can only recover your backed up data if you haven't done either of those things. A solution to this is to use backup software that runs on your phone (Titanium Backup) that gives you the option to encrypt your data. Some caveats to this approach should be obvious:
- you firstly need to decide if you trust your backup software's encryption
- you need to use a strong password and be able to recall it months/years from now when you go to restore your data
- you need to copy your backups off your phone (such as onto your SD card, cloud, dropbox, etc.) in case you lose your phone.
Zombtastic said:
And my second round of questions (regarding recoveries and what not):
I am also under the impression that I would not be able to flash through custom recovery either as the internal SD would be inaccessible from the recovery being it doesn't have the encryption key. I am currently running OmniROM and it is in a nightly stage still for my phone. I wouldn't be able to update nightly would I? I am assuming since it basically flashes/overwrites system each time, that I would be losing my encryption key and making everything besides system unusable then right?
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Tricky - if you flash/update your phone with a new ROM, you will probably be OK so long as you haven't wiped the part of your phone's storage that holds the encryption information. I don't know where this is. But the nightly updates I do to my phone don't normally touch my data - all my apps are still there and it boots identically to the way it did before I updated it. HOWEVER, its possible that an update may force me to wipe my phone for some reason - the update may fail, it may contain significant changes, or I might screw something up. I probably end up completely wiping my phone at least once every 2 months just because I like to play with the latest and greatest ROMs, or I screw something up. So if that happens, I'm going to lose the encryption information and thus would lose everything on the phone.
Of course, I can always restore my apps and data via Titanium Backup, since I back up my stuff quite often and then copy it to Dropbox.
Zombtastic said:
And what about downloading ROMs to flash/update directly to my phone? As I download them from in browser or another app and they go to the default /downloads folder they would be encrypted. They wouldn't be accessible from there in recovery, but if I were to try and move them out of internal SD to the external SD they would retain encryption and still be inaccessible? So the only way to download ROMs and updates would be from PC and only move them to the external SD?
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Hmmm - good question. A simpler question is, "Is my encrypted file system accessible while in Recovery?" I believe the answer is, "Yes, if you use CWM, No if you use TWRM". But I say that because from what I've been reading, some versions of CWM/TWRM can/can't handle encrypted devices. But you'll already have sorted this out at the time you're trying to encrypt your device anyway since the encryption process involves rebooting your phone into recovery I believe - and if you're not using the correct supported Recovery, this step will fail. But if you are using a supported recovery, this step will work, and therefore logically I'd assume that you can access your encrypted file system while in Recovery in the future. I'd imagine Recovery would prompt you for your PIN/password in order to mount the encrypted file system.
So assuming the above is correct, you would be able to access the newly-downloaded ROMs while in Recovery and thus can flash them. But of course, Caveat Emptor with flashing the new ROM - if it forces you to wipe anything, you may end up unable to access any of the data.
Zombtastic said:
Overall, this seems to be crippling a lot of the way I use my phone...
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From what I've been researching, you won't have a problem anyway, because I haven't come across anyone that has successfully encrypted their phone using a custom ROM. Strangely, this ability seems to be unwanted by XDA people. My tinfoil hat tells me that there are people ensuring that this ability continues to not work on custom ROMs until/unless a backdoor capability is found. Hopefully I'm wrong on many counts.
douginoz said:
From what I've been researching, you won't have a problem anyway, because I haven't come across anyone that has successfully encrypted their phone using a custom ROM. Strangely, this ability seems to be unwanted by XDA people. My tinfoil hat tells me that there are people ensuring that this ability continues to not work on custom ROMs until/unless a backdoor capability is found. Hopefully I'm wrong on many counts.
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Amazing post by the way! It does seem very helpful.
BUT it's very funny you mention it not working. Because that's exactly what happened. After not getting a response here or in the ROM's forum for a few days, I decided to just take the plunge and do it. I was just planning on testing everything out my self and figuring it out as I went. The first time it seemed fine, the encryption went through it seemed.
Being as I didn't know any of the info you just enlightened me with, I did fear that nothing was truly encrypted though. Everything was transferring to my computer with a drag and drop and working fine, so I was afraid (without evidence) that nothing was truly encrypted. I asked on the ROM's forum again (still waiting for an answer).
That night, my phone was left plugged in charging, yet some how had turned off in the night. I awake to my phone asking for an encryption key. I enter my key in to no avail. Nothing works and my phone is left unable to boot. It was utterly denying my password. I had to reflash. I asked about that in the forums as well, whether that was normal or if encryption was maybe not implemented yet, etc. The dev running the nightlies for my device has responded to the forum multiple times but not to me. Another user mentioned it might be that it is now merged together as a Galaxy Note 2 ROM and not specifically a T-mobile Galaxy Note 2 ROM (might be possible. Idk.).
Now, I have tried to re-encrypt. Multiple times. But I cannot for the life of me get it to even start now. Every time I go to start the encryption process it shows me the fullscreen image of the android unzipped horizontally (at which point it is supposed to reboot and start encrypting) and it hangs/sits there forever. Not rebooting, not anything. If I hit the back button, the image disappears and it goes back to my phone. Working perfectly fine, like it never even started doing anything. I am not doing anything differently. I don't know what could be happening to stop it from even getting as far as it did last time. Unless the devs maybe started working on it and have disabled it for the time being/screwed it up worse, I dunno.
Not you got me crafting a tin-foil hat...