Develop Bugs

[Q] SDCard almost full due to backups

So I have done a few updates to OS, form stock ROM to CM6.1 RC3, RC4 Stable, and Pershoot's kernel. All of these have I have done a Nand Back up which stores to my SDCard. Well my 8GB card is sitting not to pretty at 714MB right now. I don't have much in there, and pretty much removed all my music.
So the question are:
* What is the best way to manage these backups so that I can save them, but not clutter up the sdcard?
* I saw a folder in my sdcard that had some backups, but they did not account to 2GB each or any where near that. Where should I look?
Really looking forward to a solution to this, otherwise my sdcard is basically rendered useless due to system upgrades/updates.
Thanks in advance for your help

You can save the backup files to your computer and then delete them from your SD card.
If you ever want to take a stroll down memory lane, then simply make some room on your SD card and transfer the backup to the card and restore via recovery or ROM manager.
As far as the missing memory goes, do you have a lot of camera pictures or video?

gee one said:
You can save the backup files to your computer and then delete them from your SD card.
If you ever want to take a stroll down memory lane, then simply make some room on your SD card and transfer the backup to the card and restore via recovery or ROM manager.
As far as the missing memory goes, do you have a lot of camera pictures or video?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gee one...no, not many pic s or videos. Before making any backups I was somewhere around 7.4GB or so. I did have alot of music which I removed once I started making backups due to lack of space.
Edit: I found the location of the backups and saved them to my pc. Thanks! I thought it was a bit more involved than that!

these backup files are stored in the /clockworkmod/ directory on your SDcard, not the backup one.
I only keep a few backups on my device - one that I made as soon as I'd rooted - it's stock, and then the one that I made before I make any changes to my phone (flash updates, etc)
IMO, there's no need to keep multiple backups of the same ROM

the orange bandit said:
these backup files are stored in the /clockworkmod/ directory on your SDcard, not the backup one.
I only keep a few backups on my device - one that I made as soon as I'd rooted - it's stock, and then the one that I made before I make any changes to my phone (flash updates, etc)
IMO, there's no need to keep multiple backups of the same ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's what I did.
I found them under /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup/ and I kept only the original from stock and the final one, but I also made a backup of the stock rom one.
I now have 4.1GB available on my card, up from 714MB.

[Q] How does everyone "store"/create their ROMS and back-ups?

Currently, I am saving the ROMS I download into a folder on my SD card named "ROMS". Within that folder I have "Froyo", "Gingerbread" and "add-ons".
Once I finish flashing a ROM (ie. reset apps, contacts, get screens set the way I want, make sure all works..etc.) I create a back-up for that ROM and name it. If I ever add new apps or anything, I reback-up..overwrite the orginal back-up..and so on..
I leave the "ROM" folder alone. Is there any reason for me to keep the orginal ROM zips when I keep updating the "back-up" folder?
I think I am just using extra space on the card that is not needed by keeping BOTH the "back-up" folder and the orgianl ROM downloaded zip file??

xavier2404 said:
Currently, I am saving the ROMS I download into a folder on my SD card named "ROMS". Within that folder I have "Froyo", "Gingerbread" and "add-ons".
Once I finish flashing a ROM (ie. reset apps, contacts, get screens set the way I want, make sure all works..etc.) I create a back-up for that ROM and name it. If I ever add new apps or anything, I reback-up..overwrite the orginal back-up..and so on..
I leave the "ROM" folder alone. Is there any reason for me to keep the orginal ROM zips when I keep updating the "back-up" folder?
I think I am just using extra space on the card that is not needed by keeping BOTH the "back-up" folder and the orgianl ROM downloaded zip file??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best thing to do is backup all your stuff on your computer then you can delete whatever you want but leave your backups alone just invade you need them In a hurry
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

I do kind of the same thing....I have a folder on my SD card named ROMS and folders inside of that. After I install the ROM I delete the zip from the SD card. When I download a new ROM (Warm Z TwoPointTwo Nightlies) I backup using Recovery in CWM and I also backup my apps using TitaniumBackup.
Then I flash the new ROM and restore my apps. If anything goes wrong (so far it has not) I can always restore from the Recover backup.
Hope this helps

I keep a text file in the directory where I backup my Nandroid backups which is a legend of the backups (which ROM's, mods, etc.). I tend to delete earlier backups where a subsequent backup is of the same setup only updated. I also note which backups are still on my SD card. Since I have a 32gb card, I tend to keep the stock ROM, my last good backup, and the last backup of any prior ROM (i.e. 3 backups) on the card, in case I can't get to my computer and need a quick restore.

I use either Rom Manager or CWR to create my back-ups. I have seen alot of references to Titanium. I recently flashed a CM7 ROM where Titanium is pre-installed. What is the benefit (if any) to using Titanium instead of RM or CWR?
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA Premium App

hgoldner said:
I keep a text file in the directory where I backup my Nandroid backups which is a legend of the backups (which ROM's, mods, etc.). I tend to delete earlier backups where a subsequent backup is of the same setup only updated. I also note which backups are still on my SD card. Since I have a 32gb card, I tend to keep the stock ROM, my last good backup, and the last backup of any prior ROM (i.e. 3 backups) on the card, in case I can't get to my computer and need a quick restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A text file? Sorry..new to most of this..but is storing as a text file less storage space used? Also, is it a simple matter of going into root explorer..changing the file type to .zip to access it again if needed?
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA Premium App

I think he means making a legend as a text file and leaving the zips as is. Plus you wouldn't see much size difference by changing the extension to .txt and you'd be screwed if you got a bootloop since you'd have to change it back somehow.

[Q] CWM - Deleting Blob directory?

I tried to Google and couldn't find the correct answer I was looking for.
In the ClockworkMod directory, There's 2 folders: Backup and Blobs
The blobs folder has now grown to 1.33GB and contains 6233 files.
Can I clear out this folder?
I had 4 backups in the backups folder and deleted 2 older ones, to help free up 600MB.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

No, you can't. Or your back-ups will no longer work. The blobs are most of the back-up. Storing it this way means you can make incremental back-ups rather than all of them being stand-alone. Certain back-ups will share blobs, saving you space.
It's annoying, and it would be great if you could choose the stand-alone method or the blobs-method. But you can't.
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda app-developers app

Thanks EvilAlex,
But if I am happy with my current phone state, I could then delete them all the files in the blob folder plus the files in the "backup" folder and just create a new backup in CWM correct? [basically starting fresh]

Yes, you could do that. I did so just a few days ago. The back-ups I still had were obsolete. Still, just to be sure, I moved the back-ups to my SD card, just in case. Might be a good precaution for you, as well.

as i use CMWR backups before i use to install new ROM only (and one after successful stable phone) what i use to do is move the "gonna be" obsolete to my backup hdd in my pc and then create new backup. if everything is good and i want to backup again i do the same. so i only left with one backup in hand. the apps i backup via titanium backup, so i need the CWMR backup only for really ****ed up situations.

Evil Alex said:
Yes, you could do that. I did so just a few days ago. The back-ups I still had were obsolete. Still, just to be sure, I moved the back-ups to my SD card, just in case. Might be a good precaution for you, as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My back-ups were old and obsolete, I do not need them more.
There is a folder 'd41' inside 'blobs'(clockworkdmod/blobs/d41), I cannot delete them, even blobs folder(deleted failed).
Even from PC, it says
"Cannot delete b41:The storage is write-protected.
Remove write-protection and try again."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please help, sir.
Thanks..

[Q] Titanium Backup can't find the files to restore after installing new ROM.

After several tries, I finally successfully installed Cyanogenmod 10.2 on my Rogers Samsung Galaxy S3 for the first time. Unfortunately, Titanium Backup can't find the files to restore app+data. I've gone to Preferences > Backup folder location to detect where the backup is...and it says it's empty.
The weird thing is, when I'm in Clockwork Recovery mode and browse through the folders, the folder structure is identical to before I installed the ROM. Like I see the folder I stored the .zip files in, my photo folders, and a lot of other folders. But when I browse through the File Manager on the phone or when it's plugged into the computer, that stuff doesn't exist.
I'm not really too knowledgeable in this sorta thing, but I've rooted/installed new ROMs on my old Galaxy S before and successfully restored apps+data using Titanium Backup. I'm not too sure what's happening here
Did wiping data during the installation delete the backup too? My photos are gone as well (this didn't happen on the Galaxy S...), I don't mind though since I already backed it all up on my computer, but it's still surprising.
Any help to restore my apps and data is much appreciated!!
[PS: During the setup, Google can also restore apps that it backed up for me...but I've tried this and it only restores the apps and not the data...so I'm really hoping Titanium Backup will do that for me]

If I recall, CM changes the sdcard locations. So say before CM you had sdcard (internal) then extsdcard (external). I believe CM creates an sdcard 0 and 1. Try looking in both places. Good luck.

pre4speed said:
If I recall, CM changes the sdcard locations. So say before CM you had sdcard (internal) then extsdcard (external). I believe CM creates an sdcard 0 and 1. Try looking in both places. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya I couldn't find the backup in sdcard0. I should also mention that I made the mistake of storing it in internal, rather than external (sdcard1). The folders within sdcard0 is what it would look like on a new phone...
Anyways, I'm determined to find out how to recover it because it's in the phone SOMEWHERE because the folder structure still exists when I'm in Clockwork Recovery.

poutineroutine said:
Ya I couldn't find the backup in sdcard0. I should also mention that I made the mistake of storing it in internal, rather than external (sdcard1). The folders within sdcard0 is what it would look like on a new phone...
Anyways, I determined to find out how to recover it because it's in the phone SOMEWHERE because the folder structure still exists when I'm in Clockwork Recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Menu, preferences, backup folder location, search whole device it will find then use current folder it will then restart and you're set

louvass said:
Menu, preferences, backup folder location, search whole device it will find then use current folder it will then restart and you're set
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that many times already. It says 'No backup location was found'...

poutineroutine said:
I did that many times already. It says 'No backup location was found'...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the exact same problem. Has this problem been solved?
Some help desperately needed here! Thanks!

This could all depend on if you backed everything up on your device or SD card? If internal then I want to say the AOSP rom will not recognize anything from stock. However if you stored all those files on the external SD card and all lose your data, then there is an issue.
Suggestion: flash stock and see if it all comes back. If so then move all data to external SD card. Flash AOSP rom then it will all be there. Let me know how it works out

Unable to Extract from TWRP Nandroid Backup using Titanium Backup

Hi All,
Been trying to figure this out for the last 30 Hours straight & now I'm at the end of my rag with bloody knuckles & a hole in my desk... So I thought this would be a good a time as any to ask for some advice/help!
I have upgraded/flashed my HTC One M8 (2014) from LP (Android_Revolution_HD-One_M8_41.0_866186) to MM (ResurrectionRemix-M-v5.6.2-20160203-m8) (Based off CM13). I created a backup of all my Apps & Data using Titanium Backup & also made a full Nandroid backup using TWRP.
The problem is with restoring the data within the Nandroid backup, previously I have used the "Extract Data From Nandroid Backup" option in Titanium Backup to extract my SMS/MMS messages to my new Rom. However when I try to do that on MM I'm greeted with the message "Failed to locate your TWRP backups directory. Please verify that the "TWRP/BACKUPS" folder exists on your SD card."
To make thing worse, when I try to restore my Nandroid backup, it all goes well except my WiFi & Mobile Data no longer work... I can connect to my WiFi but it always says that there is no internet connection. So restoring is not an option as I can't do much without internet access.
Anyone have any ideas? I have tried to use a different SD Card & no joy, could it maybe be a permissions issue or something or am I just being a muppet & missing a simple solution.
Either way any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Oh yeah, I Googled the message that Titanium brings up with quotation marks & there were only TWO results (both from the same thread on XDA)... I've never seen Google look so barren!

Hi - I'm having a similar issue. Upgraded from LP to MM and can't extract apps/data from Nandroid backup...
It says it's been successful but no apps are there...

NeoSonic said:
Hi All,
Been trying to figure this out for the last 30 Hours straight & now I'm at the end of my rag with bloody knuckles & a hole in my desk... So I thought this would be a good a time as any to ask for some advice/help!
I have upgraded/flashed my HTC One M8 (2014) from LP (Android_Revolution_HD-One_M8_41.0_866186) to MM (ResurrectionRemix-M-v5.6.2-20160203-m8) (Based off CM13). I created a backup of all my Apps & Data using Titanium Backup & also made a full Nandroid backup using TWRP.
The problem is with restoring the data within the Nandroid backup, previously I have used the "Extract Data From Nandroid Backup" option in Titanium Backup to extract my SMS/MMS messages to my new Rom. However when I try to do that on MM I'm greeted with the message "Failed to locate your TWRP backups directory. Please verify that the "TWRP/BACKUPS" folder exists on your SD card."
To make thing worse, when I try to restore my Nandroid backup, it all goes well except my WiFi & Mobile Data no longer work... I can connect to my WiFi but it always says that there is no internet connection. So restoring is not an option as I can't do much without internet access.
Anyone have any ideas? I have tried to use a different SD Card & no joy, could it maybe be a permissions issue or something or am I just being a muppet & missing a simple solution.
Either way any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Oh yeah, I Googled the message that Titanium brings up with quotation marks & there were only TWO results (both from the same thread on XDA)... I've never seen Google look so barren!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your TWRP backup folder on the external sdcard? If so, did you give Titanium access? There's multiple thread about apps needing to be given permission to access external storage. Titanium Backup especially has a lot of threads detailing this because of steps needed to access your backup folder if it is on the external sdcard.
topjohnwu said:
Q: **** app cannot access external SDcard!!
A: Look at this explanation:
Since Kitkat (2 years ago man), we don't have direct external storage write permission. Google consider it insecure, so they implemented this feature. The reason why you can access external SDcard easily before is because most roms on XDA already contains a hack in /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml. You should not rely on this hack forever, please take a look below.
In lollipop and after, Google provided a much secure and better way to grant external storage access to third party apps, first of all take a look at this article for details:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...s-automatic-mediastore-and-improves-security/
So instead of using the old platform.xml hack in the old Kitkat days, adopt yourself with this new behavior of Android!! If a certain app cannot access SDcard, ASK THE DEVELOPER to add support for this API!!
Many apps already have support for this API. I'll take Titanium Backup for example, as lots of you cannot find the way to use it on externals SD. In Menu>>Preferences>>Backup Location, you can choose Document Provider on top of the detect button.
In the provider, open the menu on the top right corner and select "Show SDcard", then you'll see External Storage in the left side. Select external SDcard in the document provider and press the button on the bottom, the app will then be granted access to the whole external storage. You can then create a new folder in TiBack and select it as your backup location.
Other apps also follows the instructions above, you just have to manually set up the folder where the app can access, in the case which most of us would love to give access to the whole SDcard, I set the location to the root of external storage. Each app has independent permission, so you have to manually grant each app you wish to access external storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

-Duir- said:
Is your TWRP backup folder on the external sdcard? If so, did you give Titanium access? There's multiple thread about apps needing to be given permission to access external storage. Titanium Backup especially has a lot of threads detailing this because of steps needed to access your backup folder if it is on the external sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'allo mate, I appreciate the reply but it has done nothing for me, just to clarify, I can see my backed up Apps & Data so I'm pretty sure it already has access to the SD card (correct me if I'm wrong) but it is still unable to see the Nandroid TWRP backup... bit of a Jar as I just paid for the premium version of Titanium Backup & Nandroid Manager. Nandroid Manager is able to see the files but hangs when trying to extract the Messages...
Any Ideas?

NeoSonic said:
'allo mate, I appreciate the reply but it has done nothing for me, just to clarify, I can see my backed up Apps & Data so I'm pretty sure it already has access to the SD card (correct me if I'm wrong) but it is still unable to see the Nandroid TWRP backup... bit of a Jar as I just paid for the premium version of Titanium Backup & Nandroid Manager. Nandroid Manager is able to see the files but hangs when trying to extract the Messages...
Any Ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Copy or move the backup folder to internal storage and it will work. Not sure if it's a bug in TB or because of how MM handles the external sdcard but it doesn't check it. It finds the TWRP folder on internal, which if you don't backup on internal, only has your preferences (and theme if you use one). I never used it, so not sure if it was an issue before MM or not.
I did try and got an error about not finding a "clockworkmod/backup" folder or a "TWRP/Backups" folder so to see what happened I made a "Backups" folder in the TWRP directory on my internal storage and the error basically changed to say there were no backups in it.

-Duir- said:
Copy or move the backup folder to internal storage and it will work. Not sure if it's a bug in TB or because of how MM handles the external sdcard but it doesn't check it. It finds the TWRP folder on internal, which if you don't backup on internal, only has your preferences (and theme if you use one). I never used it, so not sure if it was an issue before MM or not.
I did try and got an error about not finding a "clockworkmod/backup" folder or a "TWRP/Backups" folder so to see what happened I made a "Backups" folder in the TWRP directory on my internal storage and the error basically changed to say there were no backups in it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for that mate, seems to have done the trick. Unfortunately when I restore my Phone & Messaging data it completely destroys my phone... I get the message "com.android.phone" has stopped working & the entire system slows down to a crawl... I also get the Sim Card icon in the top right of the screen with a line through it... Is this because I'm moving between Sense to something else? I'm really at my wits end with this.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

NeoSonic said:
Cheers for that mate, seems to have done the trick. Unfortunately when I restore my Phone & Messaging data it completely destroys my phone... I get the message "com.android.phone" has stopped working & the entire system slows down to a crawl... I also get the Sim Card icon in the top right of the screen with a line through it... Is this because I'm moving between Sense to something else? I'm really at my wits end with this.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say that's definitely it. Not only are you restoring app data for system apps from two different Android versions (LP -> MM) which can be buggy, but also for two completely different builds (Sense -> CM) which don't use the same apps. Sense will use HTC's own Phone and Messaging apps and CM if I remember uses stock Android versions). It's been too long since I tried CM but when I did it I had a third-party program for backing up contacts and installed something like GoSMS to backup messages, then installed the same apps on CM and restored the data from within those apps and the stock dialer/messaging apps had the data. But this was before HTC added backup/restore capability into their versions of the apps.

I'm having a similar issue, I google searched and it brought me here. I can see my backup from within TWRP, even on the PC I can see the TWRP folder and files. But when I boot and use titanium backup or nandroid manager, it says backup not found. Even in the root browser, the TWRP folder is empty and even on the PC I can't see the files anymore. Its kind of frustrating because there are two apps that I want restored but I don't want to completly restore using TWRP.

rapiollymega said:
I'm having a similar issue, I google searched and it brought me here. I can see my backup from within TWRP, even on the PC I can see the TWRP folder and files. But when I boot and use titanium backup or nandroid manager, it says backup not found. Even in the root browser, the TWRP folder is empty and even on the PC I can't see the files anymore. Its kind of frustrating because there are two apps that I want restored but I don't want to completly restore using TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try going to Settings>Apps, find Titanium Backup, then select Permissions and see if Storage is toggled on.

I've got the same problem, storage permission is toggled on. Although I am using a LG G3

same here with my Galaxy S5 (AOKP 6.0.1)

The same problem on Xiaomi Mi Max (Android 6.0.1). External SD card permission is granted to TB (it can see full SD contents and select TWRP backup directories). But "extract from Nandroid backup" shows "folder not found" error.
I'm afraid CWM/TWRP directory locations are hardcoded as "/TWRP on SD card" while /sdcard is mapped to internal memory on modern phones.
I had copied data files of the backup (1.5 gigs, not a best choice) to internal memory (/sdcard) and TB immediately found them. Unfortunately, TB offers only apps and app data for restoration. I need to extract plain user data directories but TB offers no way for that.

Stock S5 6.0.1
same here...what a pain..
Had to copy nandroid backup from extsd to internal storage to restore app data

-Duir- said:
Is your TWRP backup folder on the external sdcard? If so, did you give Titanium access? There's multiple thread about apps needing to be given permission to access external storage. Titanium Backup especially has a lot of threads detailing this because of steps needed to access your backup folder if it is on the external sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DAMN THANK YOU that solved it

Anyone knows how to extract the nandroidbackup from the TWRP folder on ExternalStorage? I cannot move the backup because its to large for my InternalStorage. I think it's an issue in TiBackup, creating a symbolic link also does not work since my ExternalStorage is formatted as exFAT.

Another fix I discovered is get your BACKUP ID
twrp save folder > TWRP>BACKUPS>BACKUPID>backup
if you have a backup without a backupid folder it will not work!

Having storage permission or not doesn't seem to help at all!

-Duir- said:
Is your TWRP backup folder on the external sdcard? If so, did you give Titanium access? There's multiple thread about apps needing to be given permission to access external storage. Titanium Backup especially has a lot of threads detailing this because of steps needed to access your backup folder if it is on the external sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This helps Titanium Backup see its own backup folder, but doesn't help it see the /TWRP/BACKUPS folder

emuzychenko said:
I'm afraid CWM/TWRP directory locations are hardcoded as "/TWRP on SD card" while /sdcard is mapped to internal memory on modern phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can a symlink be created from the location it's looking to the location it's actually at?