Develop Bugs

Nandroid Question?

Quick Question, I have full root with credit due to the many people that helped me get there ; )
If i backup with Nandroid and use Titanium backup to back up my files and setting.
Can i then flash a differnt rom like (Fresh) to check it out?
Then
If i want to restore my previous rom can i just run nandroid to restore my backup?

Nandroid restores everything. Its complete in every way.
Backups like my backup and titanium can get most of your apps and some settings on any rom you install but most of your setup settings trend to not restore. Some apps can have issues from time to time. Any issues are easy to fix just install and reinstall from market.

Also you can have multiple nandroids and switch back and forth. So if you like two roms get them set as you like and nandroid. Do the same with any others and you can go back and forth. You can also rename them on your sd card.

yup , thats primarily why i use nandroid, and why its so friggin great. i think clockworkrecovery has the option to automatically create nandroid backups on a timely basis. i havent tried it out, but if you wanna make sure you backup your data frequently to prevent any loss of info, sounds like a good option to check out too.
what rom are you on? I was on fresh, and its a great rom but it got slow on me after a few days. i would suggest damagecontrol, cause its known to give a increase in battery life and was completely stable and fast on mine

Damage's rom is great. I'm also running v7 of froyo I forget who is doing it though.

Aridon said:
Also you can have multiple nandroids and switch back and forth. So if you like two roms get them set as you like and nandroid. Do the same with any others and you can go back and forth. You can also rename them on your sd card.
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That is great, thanks a ton guys!

What exactly are the steps for flashing a new rom?

I am definately a beginner at this so any experienced help would be much appreciated.
I want to try out some new roms but im not 100% sure of ALL the steps
1) do I have to do a wipe/factory reset every time before installing a rom
2) do I have to do a nandroid backup everytime
3) Is there a way to save my settings in a particular rom so that it makes it easy to switch back and forth
I'd also like some insight on what roms have an everyday functionality to them. I am running the C-6 rc1 version of Froyo and love it. Only prob is battery life. But i would like to know what other roms work well for everyday use.
Much appreciated people!

1. do so unless instructed by the dev that you dont have to. But always wipe when switching between different roms (e.g cm6-fresh)
2.no, just make sure you have at least 1 good one
3. Not entirely, you can use something like titanium backup though in order to backup settings for specific applications, which could be used to save your custom keyboard dictionary, text messages, and things like that. It can also be used to backup downloaded aps etc.
4. Try a rom like fresh, damage control, baked something. there are so many. I use cm6 so I have no experience with the above
..here is a cute little thread with what some people are using:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=733732&highlight=rom
don't know how statistically accurate it is, but it gives you an idea of the top roms I think who knows D;

What about radios?
I'm running a rooted 1.47.651.1 with the latest radio and wimax (whitslack's fix). Will I need to flash the radio and wimax again if I flash fresh 1.0.1 or something else?

Read the dev forums and all the Wikis.
If something is not clear, read them again.
Then flash and search for any issue you run into.

no radio and wimax are neither backed up or restored during a nandroid, nor are they touched when flashing a new rom unless the dev specifically made the rom to flash the radio also (and I do not think anyone does this)

3) Is there a way to save my settings in a particular rom so that it makes it easy to switch back and forth
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Click to collapse
actually the best way i have found to switch between roms and keep settings - nandroid.
If you are trying multiple roms just make a nandroid once you have it all set up if you later switch to a new rom and want to go back and not have to set everything up just restore that nandroid. Since you probably will know that you want to go back you can store them on a pc if you want to save space and dont switch often. Just remember to always keep at least 1 good back up on the phone.
I rename the back ups to reflect the rom and then switch at will takes about 10 minutes or whatever to do the restore but in my opinion easier then having to titanium back up and re set up all your widgets if you switch a lot. I do use titanium back up for other reasons and NEW roms its great for but if you switch a lot or are testing to see this may be a "easier" option
see signature for daily driver (everyday use rom) and the ones i play with. I personally feel DamageControl gives the best battery life for my device. It is also very stable (though most 2.1 roms are now yay amazing devs )

Using Nandroid to reinstall custom ROMs
I was wondering about that. Would the following strategy work?
1) Wipe as needed and then flash a new ROM.
2) Use Titanium Backup to restore the apps and data you want restored.
3) When the new ROM is all fixed up how you like it, make a nandroid backup of it.
4) Repeat step 1-3 with a different new ROM.
5) When or if you decide to start using one of the previously tried ROMs again, instead of repeating steps 1-3, simply restore the nandroid backup of that ROM.
Wouldn't that work? Wouldn't the nandroid backup restore the custom ROM complete with all the apps and data you restored to it?
Thanks.
--VI

[Q] Backing up Settings and Apps Etc.

Hey guys I know my options for backing up stuff, such as Titanium or a NAND. I was just wondering which method is really the best though. Usually when I flash a new rom release, which has been Myn's ever since it came out I always just do a full wipe or everything and just reinstall all my apps and go through settings every single time. It does get a bit old but for me I always thought it was better off. Gets a little annoying but a fresh start always seemed best to me. So basically, if I want to keep all my custom settings on Handcent and other apps my only option is Titanium right?

yep use titnuim for that. using Nand backs up everything including the rom you are on. if you flash another rom then nand backup you will be back to your rom you had when you did the nand. If you read on the Titanium backup wiki it will detai how to back all that up.

[Q] How frequent do you make nandroid backups?

I seem to make one right before I decide to make a big change on the phone for example and rom update or theme update.
It's starting to be hard to keep up with the all of them. Anyone else got tips on how to manage them or if it's possible to make auto backups every week or so like titanium dose with apps?

I back up before making major changes. I only keep 1 or 2 recent backups on the SD card and will archive the rest onto my computer. I'll eventually clear them out, but there are a few worth keeping- such as the stock, rooted rom.

I just keep a fresh back up of the phone in stock with nothing on it besides stock apps and crap. Auto sync takes care of my contacts and I could care less about what texts I lose, most of my apps are on the sd card so I just load what I want back.

dietotherhythm said:
Auto sync takes care of my contacts and I could care less about what texts I lose
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Same here. I don't care much about losing any texts. I have it set up for auto delete at 50 anyway. I theme my phone on a daily basis. So I usually backup when I'm about to push a file into the framework. If the push was successful (phone doesn't go into a boot loop) then I delete the old backup I just made and backup again with the changes I just made. Otherwise, I also backup when flashing a ROM (obviously).

I back up when I flash a new ROM, a new theme, or make tweaks to certain files (like the anti-data-throttling technique). Beyond that, I have no need.
Sent from a Western Union telegram.

How do ya geniuses do the nandroid backups?
I've been tempted to flash cyanogen mod, but I see so many glitches, and since I'm no expert at this, I kinda doubt to do the rom flashing to my phone.

EdWRX said:
How do ya geniuses do the nandroid backups?
I've been tempted to flash cyanogen mod, but I see so many glitches, and since I'm no expert at this, I kinda doubt to do the rom flashing to my phone.
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Click to collapse
rom flashing is easy, use Rom manager from market to flash clockwork(after rooting if not already there) and then download cyanogenmod as it is awesome stable right now and flash via rom manager.
it should then ask if you want to back up(nandroid) and/or wipe, check both options and you will have a backup
on original topic i have pro version of rom manager and so i have it set to make a backup every 4 days(but i don't delete very frequently and my 8GB sd card is not nearly big enough)

ive got my stock rom backed up from when i first rooted just incase i ever want to go back, Cm6.1 and then the current virtuous rom that im using. i really do need to clean my SD card up though, haha.

Like most, I made a nandroid as soon as I'd finished rooting, and then I keep one copy of my current ROM (Virtuous). If I'm going to make a major change or upgrade, I'll make a backup and keep it around for a few days, till I'm sure there are no bugs, and then keep the newer and delete the older backup. At most I have 3 backups, but normally I only have 2.

Honestly.... Never.
There's nothing a Nandroid can fix that flashing a new rom cant And the new rom gives you a nice change

once a week!

[Q] Advice on backup and rooting

First post and I have to say great forum here and lots of great information!!
I am a long time unix / linux user and work in the technology product development and I have been researching for about a week after updating to official ICS over Kies for information on backuping up my phone and rooting.
I had considered rooting before but never had a good reason really until I loaded the official ICS update and had to reset to get it working, losing all my apps / data. Kies was not cooperating so I did not get a good backup and it would not keep my app settings any way. This is when I found out that my old Blackberry and even iPhone had much more complete backup solutions that non-rooted Android. I have totally recovered the other devices without losing anything in the past so I thought Android would be a snap as well.
Any way to the point now. After searching I have found great work done by the members and I feel pretty comfortable proceeding to root my stock ICS and getting Titanium to do a full backup. I will fix my keyboard and few other things while at it.
My questions are:
1. When the next official release comes from ATT / Samsung will I have to reflash to the stock boot.img (found in another thread) to be able to get the upgrade and then root my phone again?
2. Once rooted, is it better to just come back here and get the updated ROM and flash manually?
3. Is the best way to achieve the complete backup solution I am looking for?
I am pretty happy with the stock ROMs but I want to be able to get a good and full backup going forward since it takes so long to reinstall everything. I could even live with the bloatware if I was confident I could completely restore at anytime.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Roy

Titanium is good for backing up apps and data. If you want a complete back up, you'll want to make a nandroid backup with CWMR. As for the ROM part, it all depends on if you're happy with what you get stock or if you like customized things. I'm sick right now or I would go into detail.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)

Shawn said:
Titanium is good for backing up apps and data. If you want a complete back up, you'll want to make a nandroid backup with CWMR. As for the ROM part, it all depends on if you're happy with what you get stock or if you like customized things. I'm sick right now or I would go into detail.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)
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Click to collapse
Thanks Shawn. I saw a reference to nandroid but did not realize it was part of CWMR. Can I assume if I get CWMR loaded I will be able to backup my current apps / settings or will that just set me up for the next time? I have been sort of assuming once I get CWMR loaded and get root that I may lose my current settings.
Appreciate the reply especially while sick! Hope you feel better soon.

VideoRoy said:
Thanks Shawn. I saw a reference to nandroid but did not realize it was part of CWMR. Can I assume if I get CWMR loaded I will be able to backup my current apps / settings or will that just set me up for the next time? I have been sort of assuming once I get CWMR loaded and get root that I may lose my current settings.
Appreciate the reply especially while sick! Hope you feel better soon.
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Click to collapse
A nandroid backup is more like an image backup of the flash, so you would have to restore the whole thing to get back any files you may have lost. It's mostly for backing up prior to flashing a new ROM, so if you don't like it you can go back to what you had easily.
If you want to back up pictures and things like that you should be able to plug the phone into a computer and mount the flash as a drive (I've done this on my Linux and Windows systems many times). Then you can copy the files you want to save to your computer, or copy a new ROM to the phone so you can flash it with CWMR.

You're welcome. Nandroid backups are for when your phone bootloops or is "bricked" or if you want to restore to something previous. For me, I use Titanium to backup all app data before flashing something and then make a Nandroid with CWMR. In my opinion its a good idea to use both so you're safe from any problems down the road.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)

Shawn said:
You're welcome. Nandroid backups are for when your phone bootloops or is "bricked" or if you want to restore to something previous. For me, I use Titanium to backup all app data before flashing something and then make a Nandroid with CWMR. In my opinion its a good idea to use both so you're safe from any problems down the road.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)
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Click to collapse
mvi57 and Shawn,
Thanks guys, got it now. I will probably do both types of backups as well.
I think I understand the system a little better now. The recovery partition probably does not affect the bootloader or ROM so if I just replace it with CWMR I still boot the same and will not lose my current data. I am guessing the next official ROM will probably load fine but I would probably just have to root the phone again.
Thanks for putting up with the noob questions. I have not done embedded development before but some of the guys on team have so I have some terminology i need to get used to.

VideoRoy said:
mvi57 and Shawn,
Thanks guys, got it now. I will probably do both types of backups as well.
I think I understand the system a little better now. The recovery partition probably does not affect the bootloader or ROM so if I just replace it with CWMR I still boot the same and will not lose my current data. I am guessing the next official ROM will probably load fine but I would probably just have to root the phone again.
Thanks for putting up with the noob questions. I have not done embedded development before but some of the guys on team have so I have some terminology i need to get used to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will need to root again once you update. Replacing stock recovery with CWMR will not make you lose any data.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)

VideoRoy said:
First post and I have to say great forum here and lots of great information!!
I am a long time unix / linux user and work in the technology product development and I have been researching for about a week after updating to official ICS over Kies for information on backuping up my phone and rooting.
I had considered rooting before but never had a good reason really until I loaded the official ICS update and had to reset to get it working, losing all my apps / data. Kies was not cooperating so I did not get a good backup and it would not keep my app settings any way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a hard lesson to learn that there were relatively easy solutions to avoid it :/ I as a fellow long time Linux user, I'm suprised!. I myself can not stand not having root access when I need it. I luckily have had Titanium Backup for quite some time now and it IS a life saver for many of your apps and settings! It's a must! I too had the issue of not being able to update via kies and assumed it was because my device was rooted, so in my frustrated lack of sleep mood I had going, I said meh all and grabbed easily accessible data off the memory and flashed the ICS from sammobile.com if i remember right. I've since flashed NardRom as well and am having some signal/sms issues. That being said, MAKE SURE you do a nandroid backup and don't get all anxious and overzealous like I did. If I am not mistaken and understand correctly, sometimes when flashing roms you may overwrite various signal related files like the modem or wireless? With a nandroid backup you can simply restore from that like nothing ever happened! Just follow directions to the T. I've yet to brick my SGH-i927 but I've bricked our captivates a few times

ZeroHour064 said:
It's a hard lesson to learn that there were relatively easy solutions to avoid it :/ I as a fellow long time Linux user, I'm suprised!. I myself can not stand not having root access when I need it. I luckily have had Titanium Backup for quite some time now and it IS a life saver for many of your apps and settings! It's a must! I too had the issue of not being able to update via kies and assumed it was because my device was rooted, so in my frustrated lack of sleep mood I had going, I said meh all and grabbed easily accessible data off the memory and flashed the ICS from sammobile.com if i remember right. I've since flashed NardRom as well and am having some signal/sms issues. That being said, MAKE SURE you do a nandroid backup and don't get all anxious and overzealous like I did. If I am not mistaken and understand correctly, sometimes when flashing roms you may overwrite various signal related files like the modem or wireless? With a nandroid backup you can simply restore from that like nothing ever happened! Just follow directions to the T. I've yet to brick my SGH-i927 but I've bricked our captivates a few times
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Click to collapse
I am with you all the way.
I have installed CWMR now and completed a nandroid backup. After tracking down the backup I copied to my laptop for safe keeping. Also installed the keyboard fix only and it worked fine. Later tonight I will give root a try with Titanium.
BTW I was having SMS issues with the stock ICS. No alerts and basic funky things. I have loaded Go SMS Pro and am happier not only fixing the app issues but giving me Group text mode so I am not an outcast with the rest of my iPhone family
Thanks for helping me get going here.

ICS has a bunch of issues, including the bad notifications.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)

As others have posted. I back up all my information per app via Titanium backup and every few months I make a new Nandroid backup. This gives me the best of both worlds. A full backup that I can get back to via Nandroid backup and little backups from Titanium backup if I choose to uninstall and re-install an individual app later on in the future.

Just a few other tips from my recent experiences. Since the problems I was having with NardROM... an entire night with no text msgs from my ole lady got me pretty worried and I learned it was issues with my flash or the rom with my phone so I wiped it out and went back to the stock ICS. I also flashed the keyboard fix and have noticed no problems. I did flash the tether fix too but it's not working for me at the moment so I'll play with it later. I'm also using my regular Captivate as a secondary phone/toy using google voice and wireless so if I'm not getting anything on one # during testing or usage I will notice it and get it on the other phone.
Also, as a long time GOSMS user I like to try out the various features but I must warn you stay away from, or have a backup plan on top of it, if you purchase the 180-day premium features and utilize the local backup. I'm not fond of having things backed up to a cloud so like you I back up all my phone stuff to my server and desktops at home but running raid 5 (paranoid much?). The problem I had is when I restored all my text from the cloud after a flash and noticed the new local backup feature in a GOSMS update I thought hey i can do away with the cloud and use this right!? Wrong. I deleted the cloud backup without double checking and on this last flash, attempted to restore roughly 20k+ messages from the Gosms local backup feature and it errored out or froze the phone EVERY time I tried. Frantically searching through everything I had, I learned that Titanium Backup does do a backup typically of the related data, I beleive the listed backup is SMS/APN/MMS or something similar. You have to enable writing to /system in Titanium's settings. There's a howto on xda I beleive and google searches on restoring it. Another thing, if you have numerous backups and are playing around and i.e. have just flashed, installed Titaniumbackup and want to backup something before you restore it from an older version, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CHANGED MAX # of BACKUPS FIRST, otherwise you have just overwritten your previous backup :crying:
*Correction* I'm using jayjayjoker2's debloated ICS 4.0.4 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1843001

ZeroHour064 said:
Just a few other tips from my recent experiences. Since the problems I was having with NardROM... an entire night with no text msgs from my ole lady got me pretty worried and I learned it was issues with my flash or the rom with my phone so I wiped it out and went back to the stock ICS. I also flashed the keyboard fix and have noticed no problems. I did flash the tether fix too but it's not working for me at the moment so I'll play with it later. I'm also using my regular Captivate as a secondary phone/toy using google voice and wireless so if I'm not getting anything on one # during testing or usage I will notice it and get it on the other phone.
Also, as a long time GOSMS user I like to try out the various features but I must warn you stay away from, or have a backup plan on top of it, if you purchase the 180-day premium features and utilize the local backup. I'm not fond of having things backed up to a cloud so like you I back up all my phone stuff to my server and desktops at home but running raid 5 (paranoid much?). The problem I had is when I restored all my text from the cloud after a flash and noticed the new local backup feature in a GOSMS update I thought hey i can do away with the cloud and use this right!? Wrong. I deleted the cloud backup without double checking and on this last flash, attempted to restore roughly 20k+ messages from the Gosms local backup feature and it errored out or froze the phone EVERY time I tried. Frantically searching through everything I had, I learned that Titanium Backup does do a backup typically of the related data, I beleive the listed backup is SMS/APN/MMS or something similar. You have to enable writing to /system in Titanium's settings. There's a howto on xda I beleive and google searches on restoring it. Another thing, if you have numerous backups and are playing around and i.e. have just flashed, installed Titaniumbackup and want to backup something before you restore it from an older version, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CHANGED MAX # of BACKUPS FIRST, otherwise you have just overwritten your previous backup :crying:
*Correction* I'm using jayjayjoker2's debloated ICS 4.0.4 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1843001
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great information thanks!!
The backups I am most worried about are all the system settings, app settings and data mostly. I am probably older than most folks here and I do not really text much except family and a few co-workers. I honestly never worried about backing up my SMS / MMS but I will check on my APNs because I had that problem on a Blackberry once. Email is where I store most important stuff and talk about paranoid I have multiple copies of my emails on different computers on different operating systems. 20 years working in storage will do that to you
I believe that if Google or Samsung even came up with a backup solution that did what Blackberry or Apple could do it would solve a lot and I probably would not even be working on this. Blackberry saved my bacon more than once with the complete backup they do in their clunky software and last year when my daughters iPhone would no longer power off, I was able to use iTunes to do a complete backup and she was up and running on a new phone in 15 mins exactly where she left off.
Thanks for the advice!