Related
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.
Hi,
I am new to Android and the Gtab. I am basically curious as to what the best way is to backup my Gtab. What software and the steps to take (what is the difference between cwm and nvflash?).
I actually like the stock rom but my biggest frustration is the lack of the market which I would like to have. Having that said, I would like to run something different on the Gtab which will support the market app and not the Gmarket app. I looked around the forums and I see lots of good tutorials but it confuses me on how I backup with my stock rom before I begin any of the tutorials to upgrade to a new rom. I feel like backing up is the biggest step and don't want to mess this up so that I can revert back if I do make a mistake down the road. I'm sure once you do this a couple of times it starts to make sense but I have not done it yet and want to make sure I understand everything before I move forward.
I am a beginner but want to be able to get more out of my Gtab. Please help.
It needs to be modded right out of the box, so how much could you have possibly gotten installed?
Ok, I'm kidding.
What are you trying to "backup"? If it's DOC's and Books, music, etc, either dump it all onto a secondary memory card, or dump your data to a PC using usb connection. As for settings like email, etc. I say skip the backup and just reinstall the stuff.
I keep all of the working installers I've found on my external SD card so if I need to wipe & start over, I just go through and click/install them again.
bnovak said:
It needs to be modded right out of the box, so how much could you have possibly gotten installed?
Ok, I'm kidding.
What are you trying to "backup"? If it's DOC's and Books, music, etc, either dump it all onto a secondary memory card, or dump your data to a PC using usb connection. As for settings like email, etc. I say skip the backup and just reinstall the stuff.
I keep all of the working installers I've found on my external SD card so if I need to wipe & start over, I just go through and click/install them again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for the post. I think I may have not worded my question right. My fault since I am new. What I mean is what do I need to do to backup my current OS I suppose. For instance, it has android 2.2 correct? I upgraded OOTB to firmware 3588 which works well but no market. What do I need to do to back this OS up so that I can revert back to it in case of any problems? Sorry if I am still confusing you guys but like I said earlier, I am completely new and still learning the phraseology and such. Thanks!
jetguy35,
Most people get Titanium Backup and backup the apps and system with a batch file in that.
That takes care of apps.
If the whole tablet gets messed up you either NVFlash back to the bekit 1105 version
per the NVFlash recovery thread in developers, if its not too bad you reinstall the
current 3588 version from a download.
There are other ways some people suggest, but I don't recommend what I haven't used and don't know about.
Good Luck!!!
Rev
An app called Titanium Backup will allow you to back up your apps and their data.
To do a complete system backup, you'll need to get clockworkmod installed (bekit .8 version), once booted into clockworkmod there is a back up option which will back up all system files and apps.
Check this thread in the development section for installing clockworkmod:
[Sticky][Guide]Install ClockworkMod, A ROM, Flash Player, and the Market Fix
Insall clockwork mod .8 and boot to recovery and backup entire rom. ..then save a copy from internal to external sd card in case you need it.
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0b5.1.1 using Tapatalk
personally (and I was in your shoes last week)
I would just go through the TNT Lite post and flash that ROM onto the tablet. If you go TNT 4.4.0 you DO NOT WANT CLOCKWORK.
It's really simple - plug in USB, copy the correct files to the tablet, push and hold pwr-volume up and give it a couple minutes.
I think the vanilla ROM is floating around so if you don't have a bunch of personalized files, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Anytime you flash it, you are going to have to add some of the programs back in anyway.
Roebeets TnT build is super fast and super stable. You won't know what hit you when you turn it on the first time.
bnovak,
That's a good idea, but not everyone is ready, or has the expertise or even wants
to move up to a ROM.
I have two tablets and one is running the experimental next generation TwoTabX ROM
that is on hold waiting for VS to do something -- and the other most of the time is
pure stock (so I can test stuff and get OTA updates etc.
When I go to work, doesn't matter which I take because both work well.
Stock is not bad!!! You should have seen the original software!!!
Rev
recovery just says something is wrong, look at log?
I tried a few versions (of the backup sets), same error.
What am I doing wrong? How do I fix it? :crying:
Log from recovery run...
Starting recovery on Thu Aug 16 21:58:52 2012
can't open /dev/tty0: No such file or directory
framebuffer: fd 3 (720 x 1280)
RA Revamped
Build : RA-VIGOR-v3.15-getitnowmarketing
Command: "/sbin/recovery"
ro.secure=0
ro.allow.mock.location=0
ro.debuggable=1
fuzzynco said:
recovery just says something is wrong, look at log?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happens all the time to people.
You can't simply restore a backup from another device because then your new device will actually appear as your old device on Google and Verizons servers, which will cause all sorts of problems if Verizon were to ever successfully restore your old phone and try and send it off to someone else. To avoid this problem, the recovery won't even let you restore a backup from another phone, even if its the exact same hardware.
Go to play.google.com, go to view your devices in the settings section. You should see two Rezounds. One will have been activated in the past, and one whenever you first turned on your replacement after receiving it and logging in with your account. So the one that was activated in the past is clearly your original Rezound that you've returned. You can give it a name, like "DEAD REZOUND" so that you know by looking at the name which Rezound Google thinks you're using.
There is a workaround that will let you restore the backup anyway if you want to search for it, but I highly recommend you don't. If you do, you can then go to play.google.com again, view your existing devices in the settings section, and you'll see that Google thinks your new phone is the same one you just sent back to Verizon. It should show "DEAD REZOUND" as being registered again today (or whatever day you successfully restored a backup from your old phone)
To sum up: Don't restore a backup from another Rezound. You pretty much have to start over again.
I kind of follow... RA is an image backup
so it would duplicate the serial and device specific data.
I could do a TiBu of the user apps and data (and the
new xml files of the call log and sms's), though.
Use an app to export the calendar data to an
.ics (iCal file) and the phone book to a .vcf
for import on the 'new' phone.
Since Google added some 800+ empty
phone book entries and messed up my phone
book, I don't sync with it. I export the whole
thing to a vcf.
So the missing /dev/tty0 device file
error from the restore is just AR not
letting me shot myself in the foot,
right?
I'll need to install my ROM, then
restore the user apps and data
from TiBu then rebuild my 'desktop'?
Is it worth doing the RUU for ICS
to get there? The new phone was
offered the upgrade OTA, but I think
it was wiped by the unlock prior to
S-Off process. Would I flash
the ICS RUU, then flash the ICS/JB
hboot, to get fastboot commands,
then reflash recovery?
I have seperate micro cards for
the 600mb RUU zip and the
ICS firmware/radio/hboot(JB)
zip.
I'm thinking since I have to rebuild
the desktop anyway, maybe doing
the ICS RUU first is a good idea.
fuzzynco said:
so it would duplicate the serial and device specific data.
I could do a TiBu of the user apps and data (and the
new xml files of the call log and sms's), though.
Use an app to export the calendar data to an
.ics (iCal file) and the phone book to a .vcf
for import on the 'new' phone.
Since Google added some 800+ empty
phone book entries and messed up my phone
book, I don't sync with it. I export the whole
thing to a vcf.
So the missing /dev/tty0 device file
error from the restore is just AR not
letting me shot myself in the foot,
right?
I'll need to install my ROM, then
restore the user apps and data
from TiBu then rebuild my 'desktop'?
Is it worth doing the RUU for ICS
to get there? The new phone was
offered the upgrade OTA, but I think
it was wiped by the unlock prior to
S-Off process. Would I flash
the ICS RUU, then flash the ICS/JB
hboot, to get fastboot commands,
then reflash recovery?
I have seperate micro cards for
the 600mb RUU zip and the
ICS firmware/radio/hboot(JB)
zip.
I'm thinking since I have to rebuild
the desktop anyway, maybe doing
the ICS RUU first is a good idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In reply to the bolded part: Basically, yes. AR's nandroid places the backups in a folder with your phone's serial as the folder name. Attempting to restore any backup from a folder with any other name will fail to prevent the issues I mentioned above.
I do not and have not ever used Titanium Backup, so in regards to that, I can't be of any help.
If you have a linux machine, you can mount the data.img from any of your backups and then copy all the files from /data/app and data/data to your phone. This will restore most of your apps, and app data/settings. There will still be a few things you'll have to redo from scratch, and this may not work 100% for every app on your phone, but at least this way you don't have to redownload every single app and manually redo all your settings...
I did the RUU zip (it restarted itself, as expected), the firmware/radio/hboot(JB) zip
and then reflashed AR 3.15 from fastboot. Everything seems to be working now.
Do you know if the debloat script (freeze VZW apps) works for ICS OTA ROM?
fuzzynco said:
I did the RUU zip (it restarted itself, as expected), the firmware/radio/hboot(JB) zip
and then reflashed AR 3.15 from fastboot. Everything seems to be working now.
Do you know if the debloat script (freeze VZW apps) works for ICS OTA ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure...
I couldn't get ViperROM 1.0.3 to not crash (com.android.phone kept crashing).
Trying a couple of others that are prerooted and deboated. So far the ICS &
Sense 3.6 looks fine. Still have the 'social network' stuff to freeze though,
Could I do something like make a zip (from adb shell) of the user apps
/data/app & /data/data directories (to preserve the unix permissions).
and leave that on fat32 sd card? Then merge that into the zip for the
rom to be installed so the installer will reload them?
Would I need to add lines to the installer script to have it load /data (with
the subdirs ../app and ../data)?
hmms maybe better to make a seperate zip to preinstall my saved
/data subdirs? Can I copy the ROMs installer binary and build
a installer script to mount /data, then install the /data directory,
umount /data?
a.mcdear said:
This happens all the time to people.
You can't simply restore a backup from another device because then your new device will actually appear as your old device on Google and Verizons servers, which will cause all sorts of problems if Verizon were to ever successfully restore your old phone and try and send it off to someone else. To avoid this problem, the recovery won't even let you restore a backup from another phone, even if its the exact same hardware.
Go to play.google.com, go to view your devices in the settings section. You should see two Rezounds. One will have been activated in the past, and one whenever you first turned on your replacement after receiving it and logging in with your account. So the one that was activated in the past is clearly your original Rezound that you've returned. You can give it a name, like "DEAD REZOUND" so that you know by looking at the name which Rezound Google thinks you're using.
There is a workaround that will let you restore the backup anyway if you want to search for it, but I highly recommend you don't. If you do, you can then go to play.google.com again, view your existing devices in the settings section, and you'll see that Google thinks your new phone is the same one you just sent back to Verizon. It should show "DEAD REZOUND" as being registered again today (or whatever day you successfully restored a backup from your old phone)
To sum up: Don't restore a backup from another Rezound. You pretty much have to start over again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not really. im on my third rezound and i restored the same viper rom i had before.
this is what i did with AR
1. back up current rom
2. boot into rom
3. use root explorer and find the nandroids
4. noticed 2 folders in the same nanadroid folder ( light bulb)
5. move old back up to the location where the new one was.
6. boot into recovery and did a full wipe
7. restored old back up.
8 boot phone
9. BAM!
This app might work. I use it and it works great but I'm not sure if it restores data.
synisterwolf said:
not really. im on my third rezound and i restored the same viper rom i had before.
this is what i did with AR
1. back up current rom
2. boot into rom
3. use root explorer and find the nandroids
4. noticed 2 folders in the same nanadroid folder ( light bulb)
5. move old back up to the location where the new one was.
6. boot into recovery and did a full wipe
7. restored old back up.
8 boot phone
9. BAM!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah this works perfectly fine, but can cause the new phone to register on the network as if it were the old one. It is perfectly possible to restore a backup from another phone, and it works fine... its just a bad idea because if your old phone is ever "recovered" and turned back on, VZW might see two identical devices on the network, which will cause problems in the future.
a.mcdear said:
Yeah this works perfectly fine, but can cause the new phone to register on the network as if it were the old one. It is perfectly possible to restore a backup from another phone, and it works fine... its just a bad idea because if your old phone is ever "recovered" and turned back on, VZW might see two identical devices on the network, which will cause problems in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know. Thanks
In my case, the backup is from a device that i bricked totally. couldnt get into download mode so im thinking they will just use it as parts
Sent from my iPhone...
Hello! I have a little experience using computers from late 1995 Year, and from year 2000 I am using also Linux from time to time, and very rare but it was a delight freeBSD. I have no experience on Android and MacOs.
Now, I all my family (father, mother, girlfriend and I) changed the phones on Android which is Linux based, but for ARM processors.
Anyway, I have played a little with Android 4 x86 on my laptop.
Please considering that I am new in the Android sutff.
From, my point of view, a Android Smartphone is just a little computer like an raspberry pi / pandaboard / beagle board.
So, a mini computer with an Arm processor running a very small and tiny operating system max 8 Gb, when on my gentoo install I had been using about 30-40 Gb. I know, the size can be affected by the compiling flags but anyway. Please corecct me if I am wrong.
Now, on all my system I had, from my experience I did 2 Backups, like this:
My laptop is backed-up on the External Hardisk number 1, and the External Hardisk number 1 is backed-up on the External Hardisk number 2.
So, as it is a good practice to have a backup handy, I keep 2 backups in 2 different location in case of hardware failure / water flood etc. Some of the files I need are backed up in the cloud, on the internet.
I use to make IMAGES of the Operating System partition, and of the mbr , and of the partition table, with software like Acronis True Image, Paragon, DriveImage XML, Norton Ghost, Clone Zilla.
When I had to do data recovery I did an Acronis "sector-by-sector" approach image of the hardisk, and I recovered files from that image.
Can you guys please introduce me please on the android field?
I assume that maybe I will need to get root on one or two phones, and one phone need's to be unlocked from the carrier.
Before doing this I would like to make a full backup of the phones.
1) How can I make a FULL backup of the android phones? In this moment my mother phone is a samsung galaxy mini2 Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 s6500 and mine is Sony Xperia L
2)
a) If I will "unlock" the phone from the carrier (locked on orange, but i wish to use also Vodafone, I tim, I wind, moviestar, o2 etc)
b) If I will "root" the phone to gain administrator acces on it
After step A) and B) if I will restore the original backup, the phone will be "locked" back to Orange, and "un-rooted", or it will be "unlocked" and "un-rooted"?
3) Instead of having an hardisk like computer have, I guess the smartphone is using an "usb-stick/sd-card/ssdhdd"-like memory for storage of the operating system, so how can I see the partition table, the mbr, on the device?
Thank you in advance!
In my experience the best backup apps available require root. So I would recommend unlocking and rooting the phone first, get all the apps you wish to use installed, then use clockworkmod recovery to make a backup. This backup will include everything including the current unlocked rooted status, and can be restored using the same software. I also reccomend titanium backup for app backups, which includes user defined settings for each app. There are free and paid versions of each and both work equally well. Both apps, Titanium Backup Root, and Clockwork Manager are available for install from the play store.
Thank you for your feedback, but I wish to backup before unlocking, I will root the phone only as a last resort.
It could be possible to need the phone locked up, if there will be warranty problems.
I am currently reading about Odin, next will be CWM and TWRP, as I am not familiar with those "tools" and I don't know for what are they used for.
As I learned by now, with odin I can go back to an old firmware. But first I need to learn how to back it up in this state, locked, and un-rooted.
After I have read, read, read, and read again a lot of posts, blogs, forums, it seems that If I wish to backup the Stock Rom, I need to do root on the device. But if I will "root" the device, make backup, change rom, then recover the stock rom from backup (which is in the rooted stage), can I UN-ROOT it again?
Yes. Most phones have unroot options available. Alternatively, flashing stock rom to a rooted phone using odin etc will be in unrooted state. Stock firmware will also return the bootloader and recovery( which is what cwm and twrp are btw) to stck as well.
Sent from my SM-T210R using xda app-developers app
doctortonic said:
After I have read, read, read, and read again a lot of posts, blogs, forums, it seems that If I wish to backup the Stock Rom, I need to do root on the device. But if I will "root" the device, make backup, change rom, then recover the stock rom from backup (which is in the rooted stage), can I UN-ROOT it again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know which phone(s) you have, but let's say you root your phone. You can then install ClockworkMod Recovery which allows you to flash custom ROMs and make full NAND backups (backups of the entire system partition), i.e you can backup whole ROMs. If you're on a custom ROM and you want to go back to a previous ROM, then just restore your NAND backup from Recovery and voila! Your phone will look and behave exactly like it did before you flashed the other ROM, and all SMS', phone records and apps will be there. Sure, it'll still be rooted, but simply open SuperSU (if that's the root app you'll be using), go to settings and tap "un-root". Done.
So..
- Make a typical backup of stuff, like moving important things to your computer etc. since accidents happen.
- Root and install Recovery
- Make a NAND backup in Recovery
- Flash a custom ROM if you want to
When you want to go back to stock:
- Boot into Recovery
- Restore your NAND backup
- Reboot and you're done
- Un-root if you'd like to
Tip: Store your NAND backup on your SD card and not on the internal storage in case you ever do a complete wipe of the internal storage or something happens to your phone and you lose your backup.
Note: Be sure to quote this post if you want a reply from me. I'm not usually in the Q&A section, and i'll be notified by Tapatalk on my phone when you quote this post. That way i'll see your reply, and i can then reply faster again.
I tried to root the phone with some software found in this forum ( SuperOneClick ) but did not worked.
I tooked the phone to a service and Unlocked the phone from the carrier network.
I asked if the phone will be rooted after the unlock, and they told:
PhoneService: "No, but do you wish to be rooted?"
Me:"How is better and safe, rooted or unrooted?"
PhoneService: "You have the advantage for example that you can move the aplications to card, but is safe to have the phone unrooted"
Me: "If it is possible please root the phone"
PhoneService: "oky, give us 30 minutes"
After 30 minutes (I took a walking), they unlocked the phone but said that rooting the phone will take more time, so I not rooted the phone.
As the phone dosen't need neccesary to be rooted, as I have no aplication in it which require this (there is only 2 apps, Opera browser and Copy To Sim / Import contact to Sim), and I don't desire to install more apps on it as only my mother is using it, I will leave the phone unrooted.
I wished only to have a Backup of the rom, just in case something will go wrong, to restore the phone back to the warrany service if there is this need, but as long the phone can be locked be back again, there is no such need to root it.
Guys, thank you very much for the input, really appreciated!
How about a adb backup? Using adb tools. Try search on Google for it. If I remember correctly, root is not needed.
Hello community,
today I found myself in the situation where I was to make "the step" and try to install a cyanogenmod on my old, trusty Galaxy S2 GT-i9100 (yep, the oooold one). This phone has served me well, exceptionally well, in the past 4 years. Probably I'll get a new one for christmas, but that's not the point... even if unluckily a model I was considering (asus ze551kl) isn't sold in my country. eh, that's life... no easily replaceable batteries. but let's move on. I'll try to be as clear as possible because even if I'm somewhat ok with technology, I can't remember all terms.
I don't want to be polemic, but I want to clearly understand where I did wrong making a backup of my phone:
- first step, I rooted it. all went well, got ClockworkMod recovery "recovery os"; to me looks like a recovery operative system in all, a tiny version of android that could read the OS partition and clone it somewhere else.
- second step, I made several back-ups from the clockworkmod (Power+VolumeUp+Home) and moved them to the REAL microSD card, the tiny piece I can pull off.
- third... well, saving the cyanogenmod "cooked" .zip in /sdcard folder of the phone. I tried to reset everything, then installing the cyanogen from the CWM... surprise, it failed!
"well nothing bad, i have this nandroid backup manager that goes along pretty well with CWM, seems to see all the backups CWM does, so probably CWM is just cloning all my phone to a file that can be restored is anything goes wrong, and at the next restart I'll have everything back as nothing happened". Because on computers, I've experience that works like that. I cloned the HDD of my laptop (a ssd drive) over another HDD I had (a traditional spinning drive) and... whoah, it worked. I had the exact system on another box that I can place into the laptop and I know it will works, while i can safely do experiments on the other one. that's the purpose of backup, right?
then... I tried to restore my backup with CWM. has restored the wallpaper and the messages. nothing else. how is that possible?
not a single app installed, not one desktop configuration... i used to have 4 screens or "desktops" on my phone, with my widgets and my notes. all gone!
so... what I've missed?
how can I clone my android phone somewhere so I can restore it?
what is preventing me from doing that?
thanks in advance for the answers... has been a long night (it's 3:20 here and most of my time has been passed trying to figure out a solutionto this...) I'll check tomorrow
awambawamb said:
Hello community,
today I found myself in the situation where I was to make "the step" and try to install a cyanogenmod on my old, trusty Galaxy S2 GT-i9100 (yep, the oooold one). This phone has served me well, exceptionally well, in the past 4 years. Probably I'll get a new one for christmas, but that's not the point... even if unluckily a model I was considering (asus ze551kl) isn't sold in my country. eh, that's life... no easily replaceable batteries. but let's move on. I'll try to be as clear as possible because even if I'm somewhat ok with technology, I can't remember all terms.
I don't want to be polemic, but I want to clearly understand where I did wrong making a backup of my phone:
- first step, I rooted it. all went well, got ClockworkMod recovery "recovery os"; to me looks like a recovery operative system in all, a tiny version of android that could read the OS partition and clone it somewhere else.
- second step, I made several back-ups from the clockworkmod (Power+VolumeUp+Home) and moved them to the REAL microSD card, the tiny piece I can pull off.
- third... well, saving the cyanogenmod "cooked" .zip in /sdcard folder of the phone. I tried to reset everything, then installing the cyanogen from the CWM... surprise, it failed!
"well nothing bad, i have this nandroid backup manager that goes along pretty well with CWM, seems to see all the backups CWM does, so probably CWM is just cloning all my phone to a file that can be restored is anything goes wrong, and at the next restart I'll have everything back as nothing happened". Because on computers, I've experience that works like that. I cloned the HDD of my laptop (a ssd drive) over another HDD I had (a traditional spinning drive) and... whoah, it worked. I had the exact system on another box that I can place into the laptop and I know it will works, while i can safely do experiments on the other one. that's the purpose of backup, right?
then... I tried to restore my backup with CWM. has restored the wallpaper and the messages. nothing else. how is that possible?
not a single app installed, not one desktop configuration... i used to have 4 screens or "desktops" on my phone, with my widgets and my notes. all gone!
so... what I've missed?
how can I clone my android phone somewhere so I can restore it?
what is preventing me from doing that?
thanks in advance for the answers... has been a long night (it's 3:20 here and most of my time has been passed trying to figure out a solutionto this...) I'll check tomorrow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably a wrong recovery
To install cm13 you need a KitKat compatible recovery and to install gapps with cm13 you need to repit your device using one of the methods available, please follow one of these guides:
For (PC guide):http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...vatives/mod-increase-partition-size-t3011162/
(Non PC guide):http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/tool-lanchon-repit-data-sparing-t3358036/