do i need to save my rooted stock rom backup on an xternal sd card before i install a new rom like viper that wipes everything or is it safe to save on internal storage
Slightly tricky question. Flashing a ROM is not supposed to wipe internal memory. For the large part, it isn't going to happen.
That being said, I tend to back up lots of things on my computer before flashing any ROMs (alternately you can use cloud services) due to the fact that on my old phone (One X EVITA) where was some bug which randomly wiped/corrupted files on the internal storage. It didn't happen all the time, and it seemed to happen less and less as time went on (updates to TWRP?). But it happened to me at least a couple times. Enough to make me back up anything not replaceable (photos in particular), as well as "emergency" copies of nandroids and Titanium data to my computer before almost any flash.
Also, I know that some builds of TWRP even wiped the removable SD. So even that is not guaranteed to be untouched when flashing. Don't know if Philz CWM has reports of any such issues.
Moral of the story: Nandroids should be fine on the internal storage. But never a bad idea to back up to other locations (even a computer) "just in case". Same goes with any other important personal data (photos, etc.). If it will upset you to lose it, back it up.
How can I back it up to my computer or to cloud storage
Jacobz1996 said:
How can I back it up to my computer or to cloud storage
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Click to collapse
To backup any files on your phone to computer, simply connect the phone to your computer by USB. Navigate to the desired folder or files, and simply copy and paste to your computer.
Cloud solution, it depends on what solution you pick (Google Drive, Dropbox, Mega, too many others to even list). For instance, Dropbox will prompt you when you first start the phone app if you want to backup your photos. You can then also backup any other phone files to your Dropbox.
redpoint73 said:
Slightly tricky question. Flashing a ROM is not supposed to wipe internal memory. For the large part, it isn't going to happen.
That being said, I tend to back up lots of things on my computer before flashing any ROMs (alternately you can use cloud services) due to the fact that on my old phone (One X EVITA) where was some bug which randomly wiped/corrupted files on the internal storage. It didn't happen all the time, and it seemed to happen less and less as time went on (updates to TWRP?). But it happened to me at least a couple times. Enough to make me back up anything not replaceable (photos in particular), as well as "emergency" copies of nandroids and Titanium data to my computer before almost any flash.
Also, I know that some builds of TWRP even wiped the removable SD. So even that is not guaranteed to be untouched when flashing. Don't know if Philz CWM has reports of any such issues.
Moral of the story: Nandroids should be fine on the internal storage. But never a bad idea to back up to other locations (even a computer) "just in case". Same goes with any other important personal data (photos, etc.). If it will upset you to lose it, back it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There seems to be a fix for the SD Card beeing wiped in this thread in post #498
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Related
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?
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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
My AT&T Galaxy Note's screen just gave out. It cracked a while back, but it hadn't been affecting performance. Now when it tries to turn on, the top half flashes for a fraction of a second and then it all goes black. This happens whenever the phone attempts to turn on the screen, be it from hold or from power-down: top half flashes, phone goes black.
It's worth noting that all input seems to work fine - but this is useless as I can't see what I'm doing. I've managed to answer calls once or twice, but that's about it.
It is also worth noting that I have TWRP recovery on it, as well as the Flapjaxxx ICS rom that was released over the summer.
As such, I have two main areas of questions to ask - the first being about possible replacements and the second being about backing up / restoring the phone.
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I've gone and purchased a new Galaxy Note, and what I'd like to do with the broken one if possible is a full backup of its current state - firmware, internal memory, internal and external SD cards, etc. - that I could then flash onto the new Note. Is this possible without being able to see what I'm doing?
Please note that I do realize that I can copy everything off of the internal & external SD over USB. That's not what I'm asking. I'd like to backup everything, firmware included, in a way that I can restore it onto the new phone.
Some ideas that I have include using adb, odin or some other software to backup over USB... using TWRP without being able to see the screen to backup to my external SD card (navigating with the side buttons, i.e. "press volume up twice, lock once, etc."), or something along those lines.
Plug in to PC and copy your stuff..
Hopefully your USB storage will kick in automatically.
Your contacts will restore via Google on the next device sync.
Pictures and other data on the internal emmc partition will need to be copied off, or over to external SD.
I'm hoping you have USB functionality ...g
@gregsarg: Thanks, but that's not really what I'm looking for.
There is a bunch of data (SMS messages, contacts stored on my phone and not on google accounts, call logs, etc.) that are not sync'd to my google account. Further, I am not sure if these pieces of data store somewhere on the Internal or External SD cards - which I can access easily over USB - or somewhere in internal memory, which I have no idea how to do. Even if this data is somewhere on the SD cards, I have no idea where on the cards it would be.
As such, I'm looking to perform a FULL BACKUP of all firmware / memory / SD card contents / etc. I'm guessing there's a way to do this either with ADB or Odin over USB onto my computer, or from TWRP onto the external SD card. As to the latter, although I cannot see what I'm doing I can still navigate the phone with the volume / power buttons, and thus I imagine that I can follow a preset series of presses to perform said backup without being able to see what I'm doing.
Anyone have any ideas along these lines?
I know what you are asking....
And the outcome largely depends on what you intend to do with the device.
A screen replacement to include the digitizer, will not touch your rom chipset, and data loss should not occur.
But if you plan to replace the device, then your only real option for backup of data would be through Kies software , which allows backup of all device data prior to a restore process.
Additionally, you should copy all current files from internal device memory (emmc) to the computer before doing anything in kies.
External memory (SD), is self contained once the card is removed. But a good copy is advisable also.
Of course, a nandroid backup takes precedence over all other options, but in this case, I do not see how a blind backup is possible.
I can give you the backup step sequence for TWRP, but I cannot promise a successful backup without optical proof. However, I am willing to try...g
Regarding ADB....I do believe a full file copy (or dump) is possible, and can be done using Odin as well , but using that dump for a restore to the new device later may become problematic.
As the file placement into secondary device partitions may prove to be different , making the push of these files difficult .
By far, a blind nandroid , or kies backup is preferable.
Hello!
I have a S3. 16 gb, a 32gb microSD card. It's less than 1.5 years old. I've gone from the original 4.1 to aa Custom ROM, and 2 versions of Cyanogenmod. Currently 4.4.2.
I can't sync my GMAIL - it says not enough space, I can't install any updates to APKs. In fact I noticed outgoing emails have not been sent.
Each time I've upgraded my roms, I have wiped the internal memory as per the instructions. I use TWRP.
I have everything backed up via Titanium BU.
What is the best way to free up space?
What I think happened, is when I installed a new rom, those old files, APKs etc were still on the 16gb. I do not have a lot of apps on the Galaxy, in fact only a small subset of the apps I have on my back-up. No games. My videos are on the external drive, and only a modest amount of photos.
What would be the steps I need to take, to wipe everything off the internal memory, install the latest Cyanogen mod, then selectively restore my daily apps. I'd like to keep my pictures and dropbox folder, but anything else I can start from scratch.
If this were Windows, I'd know how to clean things out. I even plugged the S3 to my computer to try and free some space, but I'm not really sure about what can be safely deleted.
Any advice would be appreciated. I'm kind of stuck in the water not being ably to update, or do much at this point.
Thanks
Maxi
Go to custom recovery e.g Philz, format for a new firmware (make sure you have one ready to go on the external sd) then format the internal storage/emulated/0.
This will remove all legacy data from previous roms.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
Hi 2 all,
Forgot to make nandroid and unlocked bootloader on my wife's m8. And 27GB of photos gone. I think she'll kill me after she wake up in the morning. Is there any way to get data back?
Unlocking the bootloader is not supposed to do that. It will wipe user data (/data partition) but I believe the internal storage ("virtual SD") should have been untouched. So you shouldn't blame yourself too much. And a nandroid would not have helped you as not only is that partition not backed up with a nandroid, but the default location for a nandroid is the internal SD, so it would have been lost, anyway.
That said, I try to backup any important personal data (even on partitions that are not supposed to be impacted) to my computer whenever doing something major like flashing a ROM or unlocking the bootloader. Only reason I've started doing that is a similar bug on the One X (EVITA) where actions that are not supposed to wipe the internal memory, occasionally did so (which is what I suspect happened to you).
I think your only hope is to use data recovery programs (Recova is a free one). But I've had mixed results doing so (and have seen similar reports here) when trying to recovery photos and other data that were "accidentally" deleted or recovered. Its certainly worth a try, and also keep in mind that you should do so ASAP as the more you use your phone, the higher the chance that those memory sectors where the photos were saved will be overwritten by other data.
Also, is there anything left on the internal memory at all when you browse with a file manager? Sometimes, corrupted data will be saved to a folder named LOST.DIR and there have times where folks have often found many of their photos simply moved there.
Found very helpful post
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-internal-memory-data-recovery-yes-t1994705.
For M8 it works pretty much the same. I was able to get userdata partition from the phone, but because of I converted to GPE I lost everything. So I'm 99% sure that it will work right after unlock bootloader and factory reset.
exbarboss said:
Found very helpful post
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-internal-memory-data-recovery-yes-t1994705.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, that's true. I hadn't thought about the fact that the memory mounts as MTP now. The times I did the data recovery was on the old bulk storage mode on my One X (before it was switched to MTP). All I had to do was connect my phone to my PC and run Recuva.
Mind you, even mounted properly, data recovery programs will not always be able to recover all data. It was pretty hit or miss for me (and from other reports I've seen). But the linked method is also clever in that it makes a copy of the corrupted partition to your computer, so you sidestep the issue that those sectors may be overwritten as the phone is being used. Give you more times to try various data recovery apps, etc.
redpoint73 said:
Ah, that's true. I hadn't thought about the fact that the memory mounts as MTP now. The times I did the data recovery was on the old bulk storage mode on my One X (before it was switched to MTP). All I had to do was connect my phone to my PC and run Recuva.
Mind you, even mounted properly, data recovery programs will not always be able to recover all data. It was pretty hit or miss for me (and from other reports I've seen). But the linked method is also clever in that it makes a copy of the corrupted partition to your computer, so you sidestep the issue that those sectors may be overwritten as the phone is being used. Give you more times to try various data recovery apps, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I tried Recuva, WinHex, R-Studio - nothing helped. I looked at low level data with WinHex and most sectors were zeroed...
Tennor1 said:
Just try for a sd card data recovery
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Click to collapse
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand what is being referred to here. Can you clarify or give more detail?
Hello Guys, i have been attempting to flash the phone , but it doesnt go in flashmode ( i know it's volume down when plugging to usb ), but nothing happen with flashtool, any idea ?
Maybe driver, but it looks like the phone still in fastboot, and it s reconized by flashtool with the build number and kernel . i don t know how to go to this flashboot mode.
thank you
I don't know what happened, but I no longer have a working lock screen on my Verizon (T-Mobile network) LG G3.
All of a sudden, there's just no lockscreen whatsoever. I tried disabling the lock screen and then turning it back on using swipe, patter and PIN, but there's just no lock screen at all. If I hit the power button or let the device time out and go to screen off, when I wake the phone via double tap or hitting the power button, I'm just taken to my home screen. I've disabled trusted places and on body detection. That really shouldn't matter though as I should still get the swipe screen if those are active.
Even when I initially boot, it goes right to my desktop, where before, I had to enter my PIN first.
Completely stumped here.
Any ideas? I really don't want to factory reset.
Probably related. My screen is not timing out. I have screen timeout to 15 seconds, I'm not plugged in and the screen never goes off. Smart screen is off as well.
Any ideas now?
I have no ideas that don't involve first trying wiping Cache and Dalvik/ART, and then wiping those two plus Data if the first doesn't fix it, and then flashing the 10B TOT to start fresh if neither of those fix it. Of course before wiping Data I'd do an LG Backup to backup my user apps and user data, and before flashing the TOT, I'd move everything I want to keep from the internal storage. I'd also have a TWRP backup of the EFS which includes IMEI, and remove the SIM and MicroSD card before flashing the TOT or any kind of flashing when possible, as I believe flashing has occasionally wiped one of those items. Rare for the SIM and for the MicroSD card, but it happened to me with the MicroSD card.
Any time there's ever any kind of problem, the first thing to try should always be the wipes.
roirraW "edor" ehT said:
I have no ideas that don't involve first trying wiping Cache and Dalvik/ART, and then wiping those two plus Data if the first doesn't fix it, and then flashing the 10B TOT to start fresh if neither of those fix it. Of course before wiping Data I'd do an LG Backup to backup my user apps and user data, and before flashing the TOT, I'd move everything I want to keep from the internal storage. I'd also have a TWRP backup of the EFS which includes IMEI, and remove the SIM and MicroSD card before flashing the TOT or any kind of flashing when possible, as I believe flashing has occasionally wiped one of those items. Rare for the SIM and for the MicroSD card, but it happened to me with the MicroSD card.
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The screen on issue wasn't really an issue, that was TiBu keeping the screen on.
I already did a factotry reset that fixed it. What a pain though, I'm still not full recovered.
I did wipe cache and dalvik before wiping data. Wiping data fixed it.
I've never had any luck with LG Backup, so I didn't do that, but used TiBu to recover, which didn't go so well.
I guess it's lucky I didn't have to go the whole TOT process. I've done that before and that's not fun either.
lexluthor said:
The screen on issue wasn't really an issue, that was TiBu keeping the screen on.
I already did a factotry reset that fixed it. What a pain though, I'm still not full recovered.
I did wipe cache and dalvik before wiping data. Wiping data fixed it.
I've never had any luck with LG Backup, so I didn't do that, but used TiBu to recover, which didn't go so well.
I guess it's lucky I didn't have to go the whole TOT process. I've done that before and that's not fun either.
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Click to collapse
Glad you solved it. Hopefully nothing you restore re-creates the problem.
I sure wish I knew why LG Backup doesn't work for some people? When you tried it did you try saving to internal storage, or just MicroSD card? I always save to internal since it's much faster than any MicroSD card, and then move it later if need be.
I'm used to TOTing. It's no big deal to me any more.
roirraW "edor" ehT said:
Glad you solved it. Hopefully nothing you restore re-creates the problem.
I sure wish I knew why LG Backup doesn't work for some people? When you tried it did you try saving to internal storage, or just MicroSD card? I always save to internal since it's much faster than any MicroSD card, and then move it later if need be.
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I don't recall, haven't done it in a while. It didn't get me anywhere close to back to a full restore when I've tried it. I probably did it to SD card, but don't remember for sure.
lexluthor said:
I don't recall, haven't done it in a while. It didn't get me anywhere close to back to a full restore when I've tried it. I probably did it to SD card, but don't remember for sure.
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Click to collapse
If you have your MicroSD card formatted FAT32 (which is common, and what Android, TWRP and probably Windows would normally format it as), then I *think* that maybe LG Backup complains because it puts everything in one huge compressed file and FAT32 can't handle files over 4 GB in size, as it was made in 1977. ExFAT (you can format as such in Windows with the card connected directly to the PC/via adapter, etc) has no restriction. NTFS doesn't either but I wouldn't use that on a MicroSD card.
Another option is to back up half your apps the first time (A-K?) and then L-Z the next time.
Warning that some Android builds/kernels might not have ExFAT support built in, but I'm very sure stock LG does.
Of course if you don't have a huge amount of apps this probably wouldn't be the trouble.
roirraW "edor" ehT said:
If you have your MicroSD card formatted FAT32 (which is common, and what Android, TWRP and probably Windows would normally format it as), then I *think* that maybe LG Backup complains because it puts everything in one huge compressed file and FAT32 can't handle files over 4 GB in size, as it was made in 1977. ExFAT (you can format as such in Windows with the card connected directly to the PC/via adapter, etc) has no restriction. NTFS doesn't either but I wouldn't use that on a MicroSD card.
Another option is to back up half your apps the first time (A-K?) and then L-Z the next time.
Warning that some Android builds/kernels might not have ExFAT support built in, but I'm very sure stock LG does.
Of course if you don't have a huge amount of apps this probably wouldn't be the trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a ton of apps. I will reformat to ExFAT when I get a chance and try to run LG backup again. I won't be chancing a restore though, but at least I'll see how the backup completes.
I'm actually currently formated as exFat. I can't say if I ever tried an LG backup formatted that way, but it's possible. I'll try to run one once I've fully recovered here.
Had a lot of recovery issues with TiBu. Got parsing error even when restoring via indirect method with many apps. I had to restore from a feb TiBu backup, then update all the apps in the play store, then I'm going to restore data with the new TiBu backup. Big PITA. New apps will still show as not restored from the new TiBu backup, so I can just d/l those from the play store and then restore data on this. Good excuse to not bother restoring apps I never use and shortening my total number of apps.
Aigh! Yeah, I've been having more and more trouble with TB which is why I just use LG Backup where possible, although the specific troubles you're having with TB don't sound the same.
MicroSD card in general just isn't as reliable as internal storage. Just plain copying files that have already been written to internal storage to MicroSD card is less taxing than having software create the files on the card to begin with. I've been in the habit of doing disk intensive stuff to internal storage starting with the Galaxy S2.
Hopefully your current restore journey is ultimately successful.
FWIW, I had to wipe data again today due to another issue I was having. I did an LG backup to my external SD that was about 6GB, wiped and did the restore. It looks like it did a pretty good job of getting me back to where I was. The text database is a bit screwed up. All of the group chats are showing at the top of Yaata for some reason. I have an sms backup & restore backup from last night, so I'll wipe the messaging database and restore that. Lot of settings I'll need to clean up, but apps look to be in good shape. Not sure why LG Backup totally didn't work for me previously.
Hope the data wipe fixed this problem (SIM card keeps getting disconnected), but I bet it doesn't and that'll be the end of my G3.