Rom flashing question - Samsung Epic 4G Touch

I'm not new to flashing roms but I am new to this phone. I'm used to the old epic and evo where everything is stored on a external sd. So with this phone storing everything internal I was wondering when I wipe or do factory reset to flash a ics Rom will I lose all of my songs and pictures and whatnot?
Thanks

No sir. All your pictures/music will be safe.
Sent from my E4GT running AOKP from times_infinity.

konaman said:
I'm not new to flashing roms but I am new to this phone. I'm used to the old epic and evo where everything is stored on a external sd. So with this phone storing everything internal I was wondering when I wipe or do factory reset to flash a ics Rom will I lose all of my songs and pictures and whatnot?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should get yourself an external SD card.
You should also spend some time reading through the wiki's and stickies. Actually a lot of time. If you don't, even though you may have plenty of flashing experience with other devices, you could easily 'paper weight' your phone.
This phone is different in structure to your previous one(s).
It will ONLY help you to understand how to properly do things by reading and then reading some more.
Welcome to the E4GT and have fun.

Related

[Q] I have a question about flashing roms

I've never had a phone that doesnt have an SD card. So I flashed roms left and right and didnt have to worry about a lot of data like music and pictures and stuff on my phone.
Does the clockwork for the nexus avoid wiping certain folders to preserve some of that data or am I going to have to deal with losing everything every single time i want to do a data wipe for a new rom or something? I thought I read it did something like this for the nexus s. Is it functioning the same for the galaxy nexus?
Thanks!
Yes. When using CWM, it avoids wiping anything in the //sd card/ folder. Although when unlocking the bootloader for the first time this will wipe EVERYTHING so make sure to backup!

[Q] Pitfalls of Flashing the GNex?

Hello, I searched through three pages and didn't find a similar thread, I have also skimmed a fair bit and still nothing.
Since the GNex has all of its memory internal will I be forced to slowly and painfully back up all of my pictures, music, documents, etc every time I choose to switch roms and do a full wipe?
I understand that in the process of rooting it is a safety feature of Google's to erase everything; however, I just hope there is an easier way.
if you use a rom from the same cook you might not have to wipe before you install a newer rom.
bdangol said:
if you use a rom from the same cook you might not have to wipe before you install a newer rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true but with this being a new device and the hope that their will be a HUGE amount of development that would be a fate worse than not even rooting lol.
I'm confused. With the Nexus S I never lost all my stuff on the SD when I wiped and flashed new roms. Is there something different with the file system between the Galaxy and the S?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
when you wipe you don't lose any pictures or videos or anything like that. It only erases the system and data folders
Generally, it only wipes/reinstalls /system and /data, leaving /sdcard intact (even though there isn't an sdcard... we know). That being said, it is possible to fully wipe the device, as I've had to do a few times (copying stuff back to my phone right now actually...), but most people won't need to do that at all. Even for switching ROMs.
Good to know the Nexus S avoided this issue. It might be that you just lose everything when you do the initial root, flash cwm, etc step.
You will lose everything whenever you fastboot oem unlock.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Many issues, storage the biggest

I am about 9 days into the purchase and may regret having done so. To keep this brief, I have never seen so many things that don't work right, out of the box. Mostly force closes on some key apps I have. However, the thing that is most irritating is the internal storage. I just went back to stock MDL, to sortof start from the beginning, but (and since I can't use Root Explorer atm) Estrongs file explorer still shows 8.37 GB's used out of 9.62. I get the thing where we really don't get 16 GB's, but I am looking at what is on the internal and I can't see anything at all that is using anything close to that much space. Is it correct that apps don't show up in a file explorer, and is that likely what is taking up all the space? Regardless, this is nuts. I can't be jockeying around with trying to free up a GB or two just to nandroid the stock ROM for the next two years or however long I have this. I was rooted and had installed a custom ROM or two since I got it, but I tried to nandroid the stock ROM before flashing AOKP last night, and it would not let me due to the internal card being full. Has anybody else experienced this, and figured out how to free up some significant space? Last couple of things: for when I am rooted, does anybody know how to get fix permissions in ROM Manager to work? I keep getting "error trying to run privileged commands". Has anybody gotten My Backup Pro to actually do a full backup? Finally, having gone back to MDL, isn't that what the phone "upgraded" to when I first turned it on, and am I now able to bring it back without concern of the warranty being voided?
Something must be wrong between your shoes & the phone...just saying.
Insert a Class 10 32GB stick from Samsung, storage woes solved. Added bonus, snap many more pics & faster too.
Lots of force-closes? On a custom ROM or OEM? Either way, be sure to FULLY WIPE when you do either...99.9999999% of n00b foolishness quoting "this phone is a piece of junk bla bla bla" stems from not following instructions properly, or just missing a key procedure.
Samsung have spent MANY millions developing this phone, rest assured that they've had any number of tards try to do stupid things with it to find it's weaknesses...hardware OR software.
Btw, why are you trying to have ROM Manager fix any permissions? Do you have expressed instruction to do so or is it an old habit from Android 2.2x days? Otherwise don't do it.
The storage is horrible. The external sd card if basically useless; you cant move apps and you cant backup directly to external sd. I'm returning the S4 tomorrow and going back to the S2.
Purple Velvet Pimp said:
The storage is horrible. The external sd card if basically useless; you cant move apps and you cant backup directly to external sd. I'm returning the S4 tomorrow and going back to the S2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't backup what? Nandroids? Yes you can. I don't know how you can fill up 9gb with apps but if you did then maybe you should get a different phone or wait for the 32gb version
Sent from Flip's Galaxy S4
rynroks from
elflip88 said:
You can't backup what? Nandroids? Yes you can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read what I wrote. 3 backups and I'm already maxed out, and I debloated before I backed up. Beautiful phone but I like the S2 a helluva lot more.
Update: Finally was able to save a backup to the external sd card. Keeping the S4
re:external sd
Purple Velvet Pimp said:
The storage is horrible. The external sd card if basically useless; you cant move apps and you cant backup directly to external sd. I'm returning the S4 tomorrow and going back to the S2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know where you guys get your information from, of course you can make nandroid backups and restore from
external sdcard using the latest CWM or TWRP recoveries, and of course you can flash roms and install APK apps
from either the internal sdcard or the external sd card.
You just need to get better acquainted with the file system in the Galaxy S4.
It is way different than the file system on the Galaxy S2 or S3.
Good Luck
puretone said:
Something must be wrong between your shoes & the phone...just saying.
Insert a Class 10 32GB stick from Samsung, storage woes solved. Added bonus, snap many more pics & faster too.
Lots of force-closes? On a custom ROM or OEM? Either way, be sure to FULLY WIPE when you do either...99.9999999% of n00b foolishness quoting "this phone is a piece of junk bla bla bla" stems from not following instructions properly, or just missing a key procedure.
Samsung have spent MANY millions developing this phone, rest assured that they've had any number of tards try to do stupid things with it to find it's weaknesses...hardware OR software.
Btw, why are you trying to have ROM Manager fix any permissions? Do you have expressed instruction to do so or is it an old habit from Android 2.2x days? Otherwise don't do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for nothing. The subheading of this section is "HELP and troubleshooting", not butt wupping. How are my storage woes solved if there is not enough space on the internal card to then try to transfer it to the external, regardless of how large it is? Glad to know that you have it all together and never needed a hand to understand something. Oh, and BTW, good for you that you apparently don't have any "tards" in your family or in anybody's you know. Karma, dude.
Misterjunky said:
I don't know where you guys get your information from, of course you can make nandroid backups and restore from
external sdcard using the latest CWM or TWRP recoveries, and of course you can flash roms and install APK apps
from either the internal sdcard or the external sd card.
You just need to get better acquainted with the file system in the Galaxy S4.
It is way different than the file system on the Galaxy S2 or S3.
Good Luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With TWRP I get an almost instant failed when backing up to external. CWM took so long [easily 3 x longer than S2] I restarted. Finally I let it go about 20 min and it completed. Restore worked too. I've had trouble getting OUDHS to backup external and where I can see the file. With CWM I can at least see the file, renaming it though seems to screw up restore. OUDHS is the fastest, hope I can get it to work as needed.
UPDATE: just finished backing up with OUDHS & think I found the file. I had to install CWM recovery first, save to external so I have a backup folder created under clockworkmod and now OUDHS saves to that folder. Before it was nowhere to be found. Nice.
I don't know where you guys get your information from
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mainly porn sites, why?
Purple Velvet Pimp said:
The storage is horrible. The external sd card if basically useless; you cant move apps and you cant backup directly to external sd. I'm returning the S4 tomorrow and going back to the S2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got nearly 120 apps installed, all downloaded from the play store, nearly 7GB free space left on internal storage. How many apps etc do you have installed? Or do you mean that the performance of the internal card is horrible?
I backed up to external 3 times now; ROM Manager, MyBackup & Titanium all allow it.
Is Apps2SD not available for the S4?
You might miss some of the speed of the S4 if you go back to the S2
Also keep in mind that they may not take it back for a refund or anything in the worst case. It is likely that you've got to pay the 75$ restocking fee.
Edit: duh, you've already answered yourself, my bad. Tho keep in mind keeping 1 or 2 ROM backups is usually enough, unless you're developing really hardcore.
---------- Post added at 06:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:30 AM ----------
wbexpress said:
Thanks for nothing. The subheading of this section is "HELP and troubleshooting", not butt wupping. How are my storage woes solved if there is not enough space on the internal card to then try to transfer it to the external, regardless of how large it is? Glad to know that you have it all together and never needed a hand to understand something. Oh, and BTW, good for you that you apparently don't have any "tards" in your family or in anybody's you know. Karma, dude.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Relax, I wasn't referring to you as a tard, I meant the many unsuspecting randomly chosen folks charged with road-testing early development S4's...you know, the product surveying/market research boffins.
What you did describe previously sounds a heck of a lot like a missing step here or there. I've been there often, with a phone acting wonky, until I found it was all my dumb mistakes bc I didn't bother to RTFM enough. Don't take the internet so seriously, after all the internet is full of cynical bastards like myself.
---------- Post added at 06:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:39 AM ----------
Purple Velvet Pimp said:
With TWRP I get an almost instant failed when backing up to external. CWM took so long [easily 3 x longer than S2] I restarted. Finally I let it go about 20 min and it completed. Restore worked too. I've had trouble getting OUDHS to backup external and where I can see the file. With CWM I can at least see the file, renaming it though seems to screw up restore. OUDHS is the fastest, hope I can get it to work as needed.
UPDATE: just finished backing up with OUDHS & think I found the file. I had to install CWM recovery first, save to external so I have a backup folder created under clockworkmod and now OUDHS saves to that folder. Before it was nowhere to be found. Nice.
Mainly porn sites, why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had pretty much the exact same issues. CWM now works just fine.
There is mention that on the S4 / 4.2.2, file storage is encrypted and hidden if I remember correctly.
puretone said:
I've got nearly 120 apps installed, all downloaded from the play store, nearly 7GB free space left on internal storage. How many apps etc do you have installed? Or do you mean that the performance of the internal card is horrible?
I backed up to external 3 times now; ROM Manager, MyBackup & Titanium all allow it.
Is Apps2SD not available for the S4?
You might miss some of the speed of the S4 if you go back to the S2
Also keep in mind that they may not take it back for a refund or anything in the worst case. It is likely that you've got to pay the 75$ restocking fee.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got about 71 apps & now that I figured out how to get my backups on external I got a little over 8gb on internal. I can live with that. The internal memory performance is fine, it was the limited space I was griping about. Apps2SD and similar programs won't work on S4 or S3 I believe. S2 is good to go depending on ROM. I think my backing up to external problem was due to using an 8gb card for testing instead of a larger one. Once I put in a 32gb it was off to the races
You're right about the speed, the S4 blows the doors off the S2. Restoring my sms' was 10x faster. And I got a sick odex theme so I'm mostly stock but thoroughly themed.
And with Tmobile the restock fee is $50, not bad if you're not happy with the phone
So here is my issue...
I've backed up with OUDHS the first day i had the phone and without a sdcard on it... Now I cant find the backup folder and my internal storage is completely empty but when i check on the PC it has 3gb of used space! How is it possible? My only guess is that the backup is somewhere in there but i cant find it at all.... I've looked with root explorer and nothing!
Any ideas?
Root/data/media/clockworkmod
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium

ROM switching on the HTC One?

Couldn't find a thread on this and this may be a COMPLETE noob question...
I've never dealt with a phone that couldn't hold an SD card and I'm hoping to get the HTC One soon. I root/switch roms on all my phones.
I was just wondering, since the HTC One doesn't hold an SD card, what happens when I flash a ROM?
Usually, if I am correct, wiping data removes everything on the phones internal storage, and since the HTC One doesn't have external storage, will everything (songs, pictures, etc) be erased upon ROM switch?
I'm just baffled if it's all erased upon switching. Sorry for noob question, as I stated, I don't deal with phones with no external storage, so thanks XDA.
jakichan77 said:
Couldn't find a thread on this and this may be a COMPLETE noob question...
I've never dealt with a phone that couldn't hold an SD card and I'm hoping to get the HTC One soon. I root/switch roms on all my phones.
I was just wondering, since the HTC One doesn't hold an SD card, what happens when I flash a ROM?
Usually, if I am correct, wiping data removes everything on the phones internal storage, and since the HTC One doesn't have external storage, will everything (songs, pictures, etc) be erased upon ROM switch?
I'm just baffled if it's all erased upon switching. Sorry for noob question, as I stated, I don't deal with phones with no external storage, so thanks XDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IIRC there's a virtual SD card where certain things dont get wiped (I think titanium backup accesses this)
crazyg0od33 said:
IIRC there's a virtual SD card where certain things dont get wiped (I think titanium backup accesses this)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you happen to know of it's accessible via computer or a file manager app? (or custom recoveries?)
jakichan77 said:
Do you happen to know of it's accessible via computer or a file manager app? (or custom recoveries?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its nothing different from dealing with a standard SD card. When you wipe you're wiping data (not internal storage but app data) cache and possibly dalvik and system. None if which will end up wiping your saved files on SD card unless you select wipe internal storage. Just to note HTC or Verizon blocked us from unlocking bootkoaders right now so no go on that except for a few that did it day one.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using xda app-developers app
jakichan77 said:
Couldn't find a thread on this and this may be a COMPLETE noob question...
I've never dealt with a phone that couldn't hold an SD card and I'm hoping to get the HTC One soon. I root/switch roms on all my phones.
I was just wondering, since the HTC One doesn't hold an SD card, what happens when I flash a ROM?
Usually, if I am correct, wiping data removes everything on the phones internal storage, and since the HTC One doesn't have external storage, will everything (songs, pictures, etc) be erased upon ROM switch?
I'm just baffled if it's all erased upon switching. Sorry for noob question, as I stated, I don't deal with phones with no external storage, so thanks XDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recoveries differentiate between internal storage and the virtual "/sdcard", so that won't be wiped.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk 4
just don't accidentally hit erase internal like I did!
you'll be stuck in recovery/bootloader with nothing to flash, no nandroids nothing
took forever to fix my horrible mistake.
been trying like hell to find an easy way to switch the menu order in TWRP. there is no reason why the internal wipe is right above system wipe.
alphabetical or not, it's set up for failure.
Learn from my misfortune!
eventually I was able to adb devices in fastboot to and it read my device, and eventually was able to get the phone mounted in recovery to adb push a rom.zip to flash.
nothing fun!
andybones said:
there is no reason why the internal wipe is right above system wipe.
alphabetical or not, it's set up for failure.
Learn from my misfortune!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cannot possible count the amount of times i hit that button and was half a swipe away from erasing my internal on my S3... The flow goes against us all.
Thanks guys, swayed my opinion toward the One in the right direction. I'll be sure to watch the HTC one development until an S-OFF method becomes available. I think we remember the Rezounds S-OFF o.0
Where there's a will there's a way. I'll also try not to lose my data on the internal SD card, probably back up my photos every so often. Thanks again.
jakichan77 said:
Thanks guys, swayed my opinion toward the One in the right direction. I'll be sure to watch the HTC one development until an S-OFF method becomes available. I think we remember the Rezounds S-OFF o.0
Where there's a will there's a way. I'll also try not to lose my data on the internal SD card, probably back up my photos every so often. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's just hope we have the support we had for the Rezound, I truly hope someone will help bring this phone to life and give it the justice it deserves! S-OFF, and the DEV claims his much deserved bounty.
There is one wrinkle with these HTC internal sdcard partitions that people need to be aware of. If you select factory reset in bootloader rather than recovery, the whole thing can become corrupted so that you lose all your data. Everything. I've seen people do this and then panic thinking they've bricked their phones. It's fixable, but you have to reformat externally using your computer.
Wiping in recovery preserves the /sdcard partition. So as a general rule, wipe ONLY in recovery, NEVER in bootloader.
iElvis said:
There is one wrinkle with these HTC internal sdcard partitions that people need to be aware of. If you select factory reset in bootloader rather than recovery, the whole thing can become corrupted so that you lose all your data. Everything. I've seen people do this and then panic thinking they've bricked their phones. It's fixable, but you have to reformat externally using your computer.
Wiping in recovery preserves the /sdcard partition. So as a general rule, wipe ONLY in recovery, NEVER in bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How would one then completely factory reset their phone like you were allowed to on the Rezound? Just install the default ROM in H-Boot? (Well, not ROM, but I think you get what I'm saying, the P9H-blah.zip).
jakichan77 said:
How would one then completely factory reset their phone like you were allowed to on the Rezound? Just install the default ROM in H-Boot? (Well, not ROM, but I think you get what I'm saying, the P9H-blah.zip).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset inside Sense will wipe all user data.

[Q] Memory problems after flashing

I recently flashed a rom onto my sgh m919 that I didn't like, so I attempted to return it back to a stock rom from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2267895. After flashing the rom from this thread onto my phone I have been having various syncing issues, lagging, battery problems, and it says my phone memory is filled (which I know for a fact it isn't).
How can I fix these problems?
Should I reflash?
Where can I find some nice custom roms and a solid stock rom?
CauseICan1234 said:
I recently flashed a rom onto my sgh m919 that I didn't like, so I attempted to return it back to a stock rom from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2267895. After flashing the rom from this thread onto my phone I have been having various syncing issues, lagging, battery problems, and it says my phone memory is filled (which I know for a fact it isn't).
How can I fix these problems?
Should I reflash?
Where can I find some nice custom roms and a solid stock rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not necessarily a "rom" i mean its not really custom.
look through here to find "some nice custom roms and solid stock roms"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2283 Sio!
I would Odin back to stock. Also have you tried wiping data, cache and dalvik cache?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2336392
Make sure your backups are NOT being stored in device storage. same thing happened to me then I realized cwm recovery sends backups directly to devive storage UNLESS YOU specify for them to be sent to external sd card. Once I realized this I deleted my backups and ALL my device memory came back.then I backuped and directed it to go to external sd card NOT internal storage where it goes by default. So make sure this is not happening to you. If you suspect it might be the reason your internal storage reads full simply delete your backups and then check your internal memory. If that's what is happening next time you backup direct the backup to external sd card.hope this helps solve your issue.i know when my internal storage read full this is what was happening to me. best wishes

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