Develop Bugs

[Q] nandroid backups and custom roms

Hi I'm new to android and just bought the verizon Galaxy Nexus (came from the iPhone but regretted buying it just months after buying it) and the new terminology is really confusing. Now that I've familiarized myself with most terms, I have a couple questions about performing certain things.
My first question is: When is a nandroid backup needed, why, and how do you perform one?
second question: If I want to flash a custom ROM, what precautions should I take?
Im sorry if any of these questions have been asked but I could not find them anywhere in the development forum.

Nandroid back up is an exact copy of what ever ROM is currently running on your phone. I.e if you are still on stock ROM then you would make a Nandroid and flash back to stock if you had bugs in a custom ROM.
To make a Nandroid you must first Root the device and install ClockWorkMod (CWM), Once installed hold both volume buttons up and down at the same time an power on the device. Then using the volume keys go to Restore mode and hit the power button, Navigate to backups and restore and then hit back up, this will make a Nandroid.
Precautions to flashing a custom ROM - Make a Nandroid of the stock ROM and you can always flash back.

But i didn't understand a thing yet... If I have a Custom ROM and want to go back to the stock one, and i have a nandroid backup of the stock one, first i have to re-flash the stock rom or i can directly restore the nandroid backup when i've still installed the custom rom?

You can directly restore the nandroid backup. It will start you over at stock just how your phone was when you backed it up
Sent from my Sensation using XDA App

Maybe you should watch a few videos on Youtube to get a bit familiar with Android and a few basics

mklass said:
Nandroid back up is an exact copy of what ever ROM is currently running on your phone. I.e if you are still on stock ROM then you would make a Nandroid and flash back to stock if you had bugs in a custom ROM.
To make a Nandroid you must first Root the device and install ClockWorkMod (CWM), Once installed hold both volume buttons up and down at the same time an power on the device. Then using the volume keys go to Restore mode and hit the power button, Navigate to backups and restore and then hit back up, this will make a Nandroid.
Precautions to flashing a custom ROM - Make a Nandroid of the stock ROM and you can always flash back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the very helpful response! Does a nandroid save absolutely everything? If not, what will I have to save manually? If I do a nandroid, is a titanium backup needed? The question above about having to revert back to the ROM before flashing the backup is interesting because I've heard that you must flash back to the previous ROM or you'll end up with a bricked phone...

azn android said:
Thanks for the very helpful response! Does a nandroid save absolutely everything? If not, what will I have to save manually? If I do a nandroid, is a titanium backup needed? The question above about having to revert back to the ROM before flashing the backup is interesting because I've heard that you must flash back to the previous ROM or you'll end up with a bricked phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes indeed a Nandroid back up saves EVERYTHING to do with apps installed + login credentials, widget layouts, notification sounds an lights, Messages, recent calls and so on. It may be a wise move to make a copy of the Internal SDcard which I do just in-case because I'm not sure if the Nandroid backup saves the Internal SDcard as it is a non removable card.
Regarding reflashing - You simply just wipe systme, data, Cache and Davlik Cache and reflash the stock Nandroid over and your device will be back to stock ROM.
The only time I would use Titanium back up is when moving from one ROM to another. Each time you flash a new ROM its basically a fresh install and will not have any of your settings saved i.e Wi-fi passwords, wallpapers, wiget layout, icons and folders, Gmail/facebook/twitter account details. Although Google offer a basic backup for your Apps none of the login credentials will be saved.
I have 2 Nandroid backups - 1 is my stock ROM, the other is my Modaco Custom ROM. Every time I flash some thing new over my Madaco ROM i.e custom Mods like new power menu or new kernel, I make a new Nandroid back up and delete the previous one. That way you will always have an exact copy of the ROM just the way you like it.
Hope this helps

Ah makes sense thank you so much! I get the overall picture but small details such as these are needed! I'm sorry if I'm annoying you with all these questions but I have a couple more: how would I make a copy of my internal sd card? My other question is that will I only need titanium backup if I plan on using more than 2 ROM's? Because I'm still a bit confused about why you would need titanium backup if nandroid does the same thing.. If there is a guide about when to delete the cache or do a wipe and stuff, sending a link or explanation would be much appreciated!

Titanium backup and nandroid
Backing up internal SD card is by simply copy pasting everything on SD to PC, Nandroid backup is complete backup of everything, ie if you restore a nandroid backup you will get everything the same before backing up, but Titanium is backup of apps, messages and call registers or contacts, you cannot restore the apps, messages and contacts from nandroid to New ROM, but you can from Titanium. Just in simple you can make titanium backup in case you want to use new ROM with all apps you previously used or use nandroid if you want just to test a new ROM and revert back to previous,
please hit thanks if it helps you or correct me if I am wrong

[Q] back up questions

im about to flash my first rom
i am rooted and on stock rom, but what is the best way to backup all apps, data, pics, contacts, etc.
i dont know what nandroid backup is and im not sure to what extent titanium backup will help me
thank you

acatabian said:
im about to flash my first rom
i am rooted and on stock rom, but what is the best way to backup all apps, data, pics, contacts, etc.
i dont know what nandroid backup is and im not sure to what extent titanium backup will help me
thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plug it in to your computer and copy it over. Your data and pictures will be fine, think of your 16 or 32 gbs of memory as a memory card. It will be safe.
As for being the first time you flash a custom rom I would recommend reading through instructions multiple times until you feel comfortable. Even look up videos on youtube.

and if anything goes wrong, am i able to just copy all those files back over and overwrite what happened?

acatabian said:
and if anything goes wrong, am i able to just copy all those files back over and overwrite what happened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can fix it if you mess up. But as long as you follow the instructions properly you will be fine. Not to mention that the community here is more than willing to help out

[Q] ROM Backup

Hi guys, quick question. I want to start flashing other roms but how to i make a backup of my current ROM?
Do i just enter CMW then do a backup from there?Does that backup mean the whole rom is backed up or just the apps and firmware? Is there somethign else i need to do?
Let me know, thanks in advance

That's what you do. It's a nandroid backup, so your complete system is backed up.
sinkster©

Just make sure you :
- DONT wipe out data and
- DONT make a factory reset
before making a backup

Thanks guys =) cant wait to flash Roms now

All The Best

Doing a nandroid is essential as it's an image of your phone you can go back to at any time.
I also would recommend downloading a backup app so you can save just your data and apps, it makes changing ROMs easier as you can just restore these onto your new ROM.

Nandroid Backup Question

So heres a noob question.
If I use (Rouge currently) to do a "backup" under options. And then start flashing ROMs, if I restore that backup I did, does that get me 100% back to the point of when I did the backup? Meaning, it restores -everything- like it never happened?
I've always wondered this, so if I'm flashing things, I can always get back to my fully stable setup exactly like it never happened by restoring? Or does the backup via Rouge( or CWM, or whatever ) only back certain things and I'll have to do more setup after restoring to get back up and running exactly like I had the phone before?
Sorry for the noob question, just want to make sure I got this straight.

It will restore everything 100%. You also have the option to restore other partitions separate, system, boot, and the most important , data.
Sent from a phone with kNOw CIQ ...

TeamERA said:
It will restore everything 100%. You also have the option to restore other partitions separate, system, boot, and the most important , data.
Sent from a phone with kNOw CIQ ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I assumed, thank you for the confirmation!

Here is a follow up question:
If I do a Titianium Backup for apps and sys data. Then I flash a new ROM, I usually do a Titanium restore of both Sys and App data ... It gets me up and running the quickest.
1.) Is this safe, or will sys data mess with the ROM
2.) Is there a better, more supportable way to do this?

RubenRybnik said:
Here is a follow up question:
If I do a Titianium Backup for apps and sys data. Then I flash a new ROM, I usually do a Titanium restore of both Sys and App data ... It gets me up and running the quickest.
1.) Is this safe, or will sys data mess with the ROM
2.) Is there a better, more supportable way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) It's always best NOT to restore system data when flashing a new rom. All your system data is specific to the rom you are flashing, so you don't want anything to conflict with the new data you are using now. Will cause a lot of problems in the long run.
2) TB is the best way to restore apps and apps+data that I know of. MyBackUp Pro is another good one, but TB works best for me. I'm sure there are others in the market also.
And I moved this to the Q&A section.

Well, this is what I thought too in fact I rooted my phone, installed CWM and the next step I performed was a nandroid backup thinking I could get my stock setup back if I ever wanted it. All was good. Then I flashed for a while and found a setup I liked and before proceeding I did another nandroid. THEN a while later I got to a point were I found myself, for time purposes wanting to fall back to my second backup so I thought: "hey, lets try restoring from this nandroid file I so maticulously spent time creating"!
That's when, for me at least, this whole nandroid Backup/Restore exercise falls on its face. Because when I tried to restore the backup I made it gave me a MD5 error..and I know there's a workaround that you can use by modifying the file I think that's basically what your doing? I didn't try it, I figured if the file needed to be modified before it could be restored what was the point anyway.? I just used my plan B which was Titanium Backup.
Anyway I keep my eyes open for an answer to this mystery, I think it has to do with the different CWM versions from one ROM to the next? Still not sure though?
Oh and hopefully this post wont just get rudely deleted like my first post on the same subject did? I made the same mistake you have by posting in the "General" area instead of the Q&A section!

the only time I have had a Android fail for md5 was when I changed the name of the backup. so maybe that's what you did?

RubenRybnik said:
So heres a noob question.
If I use (Rouge currently) to do a "backup" under options. And then start flashing ROMs, if I restore that backup I did, does that get me 100% back to the point of when I did the backup? Meaning, it restores -everything- like it never happened?
I've always wondered this, so if I'm flashing things, I can always get back to my fully stable setup exactly like it never happened by restoring? Or does the backup via Rouge( or CWM, or whatever ) only back certain things and I'll have to do more setup after restoring to get back up and running exactly like I had the phone before?
Sorry for the noob question, just want to make sure I got this straight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done many restores and everything comes back just like it was before.
---------- Post added at 12:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:28 PM ----------
RubenRybnik said:
Here is a follow up question:
If I do a Titianium Backup for apps and sys data. Then I flash a new ROM, I usually do a Titanium restore of both Sys and App data ... It gets me up and running the quickest.
1.) Is this safe, or will sys data mess with the ROM
2.) Is there a better, more supportable way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only use Titanium backup to backup and restore specific apps on my phone. I use CWM for the system.

patrao_n said:
the only time I have had a Android fail for md5 was when I changed the name of the backup. so maybe that's what you did?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope. I followed step by step...pretty hard to mess it up with qbking77 video's? Is there any other possible reason, you can think of?..and really, how many people test out thier restores? I'm just wondering?

Just one quick point of clarification regarding the Nandroid backup/restore. From what I've read, the restore will bring back your kernel and ROM but NOT the modem version. If the modem is important to you you'll have to flash that back separately.

Magicspell said:
Just one quick point of clarification regarding the Nandroid backup/restore. From what I've read, the restore will bring back your kernel and ROM but NOT the modem version. If the modem is important to you you'll have to flash that back separately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point ... Thanks to everyone for the replies, got a much better understanding on the backup/restore process in both cwm and titanium now ) Thanks!
One more question about the MD5 ... So you can not change the name of the backup of CWM? I didn't think name change would effect how MD5 is generated.

RubenRybnik said:
Here is a follow up question:
If I do a Titianium Backup for apps and sys data. Then I flash a new ROM, I usually do a Titanium restore of both Sys and App data ... It gets me up and running the quickest.
1.) Is this safe, or will sys data mess with the ROM
2.) Is there a better, more supportable way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also use your latest nandroid back up to restore data. I just tried this as a test with my wife's phone (i also did a separate back up in TB just in case) and it works well.
She was on one of Calks ROMs, and I wanted to switch her to the bare version of the ROM. I wiped data/cache/dalvik, installed the bare rom and rebooted. Once booted, I verified everything was gone (apps, contacts, sms, settings, ect). Then I went back to CWM and went to back up and restore->advanced restore-> restore data. When I booted back up, all her apps, contacts, sms, settings were back. I guess this would be a quick and dirty way to restore your stuff when jumping between a lot of ROMS.

s9amme said:
You can also use your latest nandroid back up to restore data. I just tried this as a test with my wife's phone (i also did a separate back up in TB just in case) and it works well.
She was on one of Calks ROMs, and I wanted to switch her to the bare version of the ROM. I wiped data/cache/dalvik, installed the bare rom and rebooted. Once booted, I verified everything was gone (apps, contacts, sms, settings, ect). Then I went back to CWM and went to back up and restore->advanced restore-> restore data. When I booted back up, all her apps, contacts, sms, settings were back. I guess this would be a quick and dirty way to restore your stuff when jumping between a lot of ROMS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So just to be clear ... "Restore Data" in CWM is just Apps and Apps data, no system data is restored correct?

RubenRybnik said:
So just to be clear ... "Restore Data" in CWM is just Apps and Apps data, no system data is restored correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes on apps and data.

Few questions regarding installing ROMs

OK so I think I have my phone 'rooted' via the toolkit, (even though theres no busybox?) I now have A few questions regarding flashing roms...
1. How do I go back to stock JB?? Do I have to download a stock rom and flash that if I want to go back? (Cant seem to find one for my build which is JRO03C)
2. If I flash a rom, will everything reset? .. If everything is reset, will a nandroid restore bring back all my apps and settings as they were??
3. Is it easier to flash a rom via the toolkit, or through the SD Card??
Im still a noob, so all help and explanation is appreciated thanks all!

Going back to stock rom is as easy as restoring a nandroid...
Things a nandroid won't restore:
Radios (you'll always have the same ones unless YOU change them by visiting a thread...and downloading and flashing the radio)
Bootloaders (same as above. This won't change unless you explicitly do so.)
Will you lose everything?
If you did it right, lol.
Use my guide.
Post 2 of my sig below.
It'll get you through the process of wiping/installing/and restoring your apps and such.
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Jubakuba said:
Going back to stock rom is as easy as restoring a nandroid...
Things a nandroid won't restore:
Radios (you'll always have the same ones unless YOU change them by visiting a thread...and downloading and flashing the radio)
Bootloaders (same as above. This won't change unless you explicitly do so.)
Will you lose everything?
If you did it right, lol.
Use my guide.
Post 2 of my sig below.
It'll get you through the process of wiping/installing/and restoring your apps and such.
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|
|
v​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your guide is awesomee! Was looking for it yesterday but thought it probably got removed or something... luckily found it again today! Thanks!
So whats still not clear, will I have to restore EVERYTHING, EVERY time I flash a new rom? lol!

soulja786 said:
Your guide is awesomee! Was looking for it yesterday but thought it probably got removed or something... luckily found it again today! Thanks!
So whats still not clear, will I have to restore EVERYTHING, EVERY time I flash a new rom? lol!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol Just answered my own question, obviously I will after wipe data/factory reset lol

soulja786 said:
lol Just answered my own question, obviously I will after wipe data/factory reset lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two parts of restoring apps and data. If you flash a new ROM and want to go back to stock all you have to do is restore your nandroid and that'll bring back all your apps, settings, and put the phone into exactly the same state as when you made the backup.
If you want to restore all your apps and settings into the NEW ROM then I recommend using Titanium Backup (there's a free version in the market/play store). You can't restore apps into a new from your nandroid, but Titanium Backup can backup and restore most everything. I have Titanium redo all my backups once a week just to be safe. Occasionally a nandroid won't work for some reason and recent backups have saved my life more than once.