Develop Bugs

HELP NEEDED with CWM "error while restoring /data!"

Hey guys,
I have kind of a serious issue right now. I used Touch Recovery 5.8.0.2 and made a full backup today of my whole ROM (2.5GB) before trying out some mods which eventually didn't work. So I decided to wipe and restore the backup I made. No matter what I do I cannot get it to restore my data partition properly. I keep getting "Error while restoring /data!" message, however it does the boot image and system fine but doesn't continue to cache and sd-ext because of the failed data. Whenever I boot it up, some of my apps are missing from the home screen and practically all of them are not working when I launch them (force close). I also get boot up error of Google+ force close, among a bunch of other issues. This is happening even when I try to restore an older backup as well. My device is not working state right now and although I can just restore the stock images to get it working again, it is urgent that I restore my data ASAP! I tried wiping several times and even using the non-touch 5.5.0.4 recovery to restore and same thing keeps happening.
Any help would be highly appreciated!
Please don't tell me my backup is corrupt
Update 1: Eventually I gave up and started from scratch but I have confirmed already this happened on a fresh backup as well, at this time we are trying to figure out what is causing this so I can go back to safely backing up and restoring backups.
Update 2: We have test builds of TWRP Recovery that may have resolved this issue! We need testers!
Please see this post: Link Here
Update 3: We have test builds of ClockworkMod Recovery 6 that may have resolved this issue as well! We need testers!
Please see this post: Link Here
***Always see last few posts on the thread for updates on what we discovered just in case I don't update the OP***

Unfortunately I also have the same error today!
Please help us out.

JayantSparda said:
Unfortunately I also have the same error today!
Please help us out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is your phone encrypted?
are you running stock recovery?
are you running a stock Rom?
have you done a factory reset yet?

Hi Spectre85,
My phone did fine yesterday, I was running AOPK Milestone 3 with FAUX123 kernel.
But when I woke up, my phone looked like it's battery was emtpy.
- When I plugged the phone with the charger, I started the phone again.
- Unfortunately my phone keep looping at the Google screen over and over.
So I pulled the battery and put the battery back again in the phone.
- I went to the bootloader and went to CWM recovery.
Deleted Data, Cache and Dalvike cache.
- Tried to retrieve my backup rom, but keep getting this "Error while restoring /data!" message.
I've tried to install other roms as well, but I still keep getting the bootloop at the Google screen.
Have you guys have any advice for me?

spectre85 said:
is your phone encrypted?
are you running stock recovery?
are you running a stock Rom?
have you done a factory reset yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, no, no (CWM Touch 5.8.0.2), yes (stock rooted 4.0.4), no but my goal is to restore my data not erase it.

I had this happen to me before, what I did was flash a factory image through fast boot and it was fine after.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Thanks guys..I flashed the factory image through Fastboot mode and the phone works perfectly again! Too bad I lost all my data, but I'm happier that I have my phone fully functional again

You can't access your backup right? There's no way you can copy the file to your desktop?

mohitrocks said:
You can't access your backup right? There's no way you can copy the file to your desktop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did copy it. I have full access to the file. Also, just fyi my goal here is not just to get to working state (I'm aware of the stock images) but to actually recover my data. My phone is currently on stock images completely blank and working now.

Fast boot flash the nand images just like u did the stock ones.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

bwcorvus said:
Fast boot flash the nand images just like u did the stock ones.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nanadroid files can be flashed in fastboot? Are you sure? First time I'm hearing this. Doesn't fastboot need .img files? These are .tar files.

Open it up and see if its image...sorry all my recoveries use images.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

bwcorvus said:
Open it up and see if its image...sorry all my recoveries use images.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it depends on the recovery version you use. I remember older versions actually had .img files. However 5.5.0.4 and Touch 5.8.0.2 both have ext4.tar files.
Which version of recovery do you use?

If you have root, you can restore your data partition using Titanium Backup. Use "Export from Nandroid Backup" within TB, select the nandroid backup and then select all apps that you want to restore

Immix said:
If you have root, you can restore your data partition using Titanium Backup. Use "Export from Nandroid Backup" within TB, select the nandroid backup and then select all apps that you want to restore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting...will this include settings as well like my home screen icon/widget layout, wallpaper, etc?

open1your1eyes0 said:
Interesting...will this include settings as well like my home screen icon/widget layout, wallpaper, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Titanium Backup can restore all your system apps as well as downloaded apps from a nandroid backup. Not as clean as a nandroid restore from CWM but essentially the same thing. But try to see if Titanium Backup can extract your nandroid backup. It all depends on what exactly went wrong with your nandroid backup to begin with. I don't think it restores cache. So not sure about wallpaper.

Immix said:
Yes. Titanium Backup can restore all your system apps as well as downloaded apps from a nandroid backup. Not as clean as a nandroid restore from CWM but essentially the same thing. But try to see if Titanium Backup can extract your nandroid backup. It all depends on what exactly went wrong with your nandroid backup to begin with. I don't think it restores cache. So not sure about wallpaper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. This works great for restore data to select apps (got my notes and game saves back). I think the icon layout is held in the launcher settings, I'm about to try and restore the data to the launcher app and see what happens. I'm making a CWM backup of first of my current state (that's assuming this backup will actually work).
EDIT: Yes! That did it! Widgets position weren't saved but it's ok I only had a few so I manually put them back. Thank you! I never knew TB had the ability to work with nandroid backups.

I guess this now just leaves me figuring out what went wrong with the CWM backup. It happened twice (I have two backups from the same day that won't restore). Does anyone else use CWM Touch 5.8.0.2 and have successful backups? I would experiment to see if it works now but I don't want to end up with a corrupt backup and redo everything again.

Yes with me its the same thing my data its corrupt is even worse every time I do a nanobackup and restarted my phone the phone freezes on the boot logo and I have to go back to recovery trying to use my backups but I can't so I have to flash a new from again and start from the beginning again!!!! Anybody here has the same experience with that ???

So AGAIN, I'm having the same issue. This time on a recovery 5.5.0.4 that used to work for me when I originally got my phone. I think either my data partition might be too big or something but this really needs to fixed pronto. Anyone know how to contact Koush directly in regards to this matter?

[Q] First Post, Help!

A couple of things. I've been reading xda for a while but am by no means anything other than a "noob" I know just enough to be dangerous to my phone, but so far only soft bricked my old cappy once. So a very grateful thank you to all the hard work you guys put in to pushing the development.
As a somewhat experienced noob I can say first hand that reading through all these threads and posts that lead in a thousand directions is pretty hard and time consuming. That's why all the "what ROM is best" threads. I sounds kind of selfish coming from someone who has contributed nothing other than traffic to xda, but a section for comparing different ROMs would stop most of those posts.
Now for the questions. Is there a way to put a .zip of the stock ROM on my sd card so I can go back to stock anytime I want? I know I can flash back to stock with odin, but can it be done thru the recovery console? I would like to be able to have several ROMs saved on sd and use recovery to flash between them. I'm not real happy with ROMManager... is freezes all the time, and I've not one time been able to flash with it.
Thanks

Make a backup! Install cwm on your device ...boot into recovery> create backup....
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium

k.zacher said:
A couple of things. I've been reading xda for a while but am by no means anything other than a "noob" I know just enough to be dangerous to my phone, but so far only soft bricked my old cappy once. So a very grateful thank you to all the hard work you guys put in to pushing the development.
As a somewhat experienced noob I can say first hand that reading through all these threads and posts that lead in a thousand directions is pretty hard and time consuming. That's why all the "what ROM is best" threads. I sounds kind of selfish coming from someone who has contributed nothing other than traffic to xda, but a section for comparing different ROMs would stop most of those posts.
Now for the questions. Is there a way to put a .zip of the stock ROM on my sd card so I can go back to stock anytime I want? I know I can flash back to stock with odin, but can it be done thru the recovery console? I would like to be able to have several ROMs saved on sd and use recovery to flash between them. I'm not real happy with ROMManager... is freezes all the time, and I've not one time been able to flash with it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW one of the most brutally honest statements I've seen here in a while. That's good. And yes it's all very confusing at times, even for non-noobs lol.
Answer-->once you have rooted and cwm or twrp installed make a nandroid of your system, you can restore this at any time. Once you install a rom and get it running how you want and want to try another rom make a nandroid of that one in recovery, you can go back by restoring it. You can do this in this way until your happy with what your running or you run out of storage.
One word of advice...nandroids are snapshots of how your phone is at that moment...any apps, texts, modifications after the nandroid wont be in it....but...a nandroid combined with my back up or titanium backup is great, nandroid for the system and my back up or titanium backup for texts, apps, call logs and such and you can switch back and forth or install a new rom and restore user apps and call logs, texts, ect without losing those. Remember don't back up system apps or system settings as those may mess up on a different rom, only back up user apps(those you've installed).
Hope this helps a little
BTW--> don't use ROM manager to flash anything other than the recovery. Boot into recovery and flash stuff manually. Also, I would suggest twrp recovery as both have issues with auto naming backups, but at least with twrp you can name it whatever you want before you make it.

Just be careful. I remember a Nandroid not flashing the radio but they may have fixed that. Other than that you should loose nothing other than whatever apps you may have installed on the ROM your tinkering with.

.
I was hoping to make a backup of my non rooted completely stock ROM. I don't see how to do that if first I have to root and flash CWM or another recovery to do the backup. I didn't see any way to do it from the stock recovery. I have looked to see if anyone has posted an zip image of stock non rooted but the only way I've seen to go back to stock is odin3. Is that correct and am I just wasting my time? I wanted that image so I could go back and update to the new stock ROMs as they come out to test drive and see if I want to use them. Just seems easier that way.
Thanks for your responses

I THINK someone posted a zip format of stock but your best bet would be Odin since you didn't make a backup before. I was wondering this a while back too.. Kinda surprised its not in such high demand..
Edit: are nandroid backups device specific? Can one nandroid backup be used for multiple phones? If it can, I'll flash Odin and post nandroid of stock later tonight

jethro650 said:
WOW one of the most brutally honest statements I've seen here in a while. That's good. And yes it's all very confusing at times, even for non-noobs lol.
Answer-->once you have rooted and cwm or twrp installed make a nandroid of your system, you can restore this at any time. Once you install a rom and get it running how you want and want to try another rom make a nandroid of that one in recovery, you can go back by restoring it. You can do this in this way until your happy with what your running or you run out of storage.
One word of advice...nandroids are snapshots of how your phone is at that moment...any apps, texts, modifications after the nandroid wont be in it....but...a nandroid combined with my back up or titanium backup is great, nandroid for the system and my back up or titanium backup for texts, apps, call logs and such and you can switch back and forth or install a new rom and restore user apps and call logs, texts, ect without losing those. Remember don't back up system apps or system settings as those may mess up on a different rom, only back up user apps(those you've installed).
Hope this helps a little
BTW--> don't use ROM manager to flash anything other than the recovery. Boot into recovery and flash stuff manually. Also, I would suggest twrp recovery as both have issues with auto naming backups, but at least with twrp you can name it whatever you want before you make it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium backup is a must. And pay for the app, its cheap and you support the developer.
Also, I've had better results with cwm. As soon as I make a backup to my SD card I boot into the ROM and change the filename.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

g2tegg said:
Titanium backup is a must. And pay for the app, its cheap and you support the developer.
Also, I've had better results with cwm. As soon as I make a backup to my SD card I boot into the ROM and change the filename.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess we will have to agree to disagree titanium is not a "must" I've been using my backup pro for years without problems to make my backups. In my opinion its has a better more user friendly user interface with the same freeze/uninstall options. Also as a recovery twrp is gaining ground on cwm for its better options, one of which is renaming backups on the spot when you make it. Add in a file manger, terminal window, multiple flashes at once and many more options many think it is a better recovery. The way the newer cwm makes nandroids makes it very hard to delete individual nandroids, search cwm blobs for more info.
Also, check our mskips toolkit stickied in the dev section for a backup. You will need to be rooted but not to sure about the recovery. You may be able to do it with the stock recovery as I think it uses adb for pretty much everything it can. There is a way to make a backup on stock recovery through adb but you will need to be rooted, his toolkit will do that also.

[Q] Full Restore

What app do I use to back my phone up to do a complete restore to where it was pre-flash. TB only restores the apps and data but not the Launcher and the way i had everything set up pre-flash. Any help would be appreciated. thanks in advance.

Need to flash a recovery and do a nandroid. TWRP 2.6.3.7. Goo manager to flash the twrp.
sent from my sm-900t.

@rbiter said:
Need to flash a recovery and do a nandroid. TWRP 2.6.3.7. Too manager to flash the twrp.
sent from my sm-900t.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Long been A fan but I just completed my first successful flash, and I used TWRP 2.6.3.1. So could you be a little more specific. I appreciate your help but I have been searching and there are explanations out there i just don't understand them. thanks again in advance.

I think 2.6.3.1 has been working for some people but I would recommend flashing .4rc2 or higher. I think all the kinks have been worked out since .4rc2. You need to hit backup and rmemeber what is ticked. Now untick that and backup efs first and store that separate and maybe even backup to sdcard or computer. Then go back and tick at least system and data for your nandroid. If you plan on flashing kernels, do boot.IMG too. Not sure about cache. I did it anyways for hahas my first backup. I don't know if you need to reset up your phone or not. And I think there have been problems with titbackup restores because of Samsung and Knox stuff. Need to read up in that for specifics. I've seen a couple custom kernel descriptions say their kernel fixes TB issues but like I said need to look around on your own as I don't really use TB. Had too many small issues so I manually cherry pick data I need and just start fresh each phone. Also been awhile since I've flashed anything because my note2 had insane chip so I didn't do anything crazy to trigger SDS. I spent all weekend researching recovery myself before I proceeded. Make sure you do the efs backup first!! In cade something bad happens youmight need that.
sent from my sm-900t.

@rbiter said:
i think 2.6.3.1 has been working for some people but i would recommend flashing .4rc2 or higher. I think all the kinks have been worked out since .4rc2. You need to hit backup and rmemeber what is ticked. Now untick that and backup efs first and store that separate and maybe even backup to sdcard or computer. Then go back and tick at least system and data for your nandroid. If you plan on flashing kernels, do boot.img too. Not sure about cache. I did it anyways for hahas my first backup. I don't know if you need to reset up your phone or not. And i think there have been problems with titbackup restores because of samsung and knox stuff. Need to read up in that for specifics. I've seen a couple custom kernel descriptions say their kernel fixes tb issues but like i said need to look around on your own as i don't really use tb. Had too many small issues so i manually cherry pick data i need and just start fresh each phone. Also been awhile since i've flashed anything because my note2 had insane chip so i didn't do anything crazy to trigger sds. I spent all weekend researching recovery myself before i proceeded. Make sure you do the efs backup first!! In cade something bad happens youmight need that.
Sent from my sm-900t.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you so much!!!!

Thanks for this informative post.
Just to verify that it is recommended that we back up the EFS separately then backup the DATA/SYSTEM/BOOT partitions next? I would like to make sure that I will have everything needed just in case I/phone mess up somewhere along the line of flashing ROMS and themes. There seems to be more occurrences of boot-loops with the GN3 than there ever was with the GN2.
When restoring, I presume we just flash the backups then reboot as usual?
Thanks

Yeah. I backed up my efs first. Then backed up to my laptop. Then I backed up modem for haha's and to laptop. Then I backed up boot, system and data. If you don't wipe data when you're flashing around you should only need to flash boot and system. I haven't run into problems yet so I havent had to flash data. It's always been there and settings and apps have been fine.
sent from my sm-9005.

[Q] Help! Rooted 4.3, Backed up, and now cant restore backup

Hello, I recently rooted my wifes Note 2 that was on the latest OTA 4.3. Was not easy BTW. I did a back up in recovery of boot, system, and data. I figured I was good to go and start trying out other roms.
The first one I flashed was Macks Allstar 5.0 rom. Everything was great. Then my wife informed me that she did not have all of her contacts backed up to google and some were only saved to her phone. So then I figure I could just restore the original backup and extract the contacts and be able to install them to any rom.
Thats when everything went wrong. Everytime I tried restoring the back up,it would crash and recovery would do like a reboot. After many attempts I figured id try another version of recovery. After flashing many earlier versions of twrp and trying to restore, I finally was able to complete a restore from version 2.6. I was ecstatic. But then my heart sank again when boot always hangs on samsung logo. And that is where I'm stuck. I am able to flash other roms no problem but cant restore my original backup.
Needless to say my wife is ready to kill me.
Please if anyone could help me I would really appreciate it. I have searched throughout this forum and internet for hours and can not seem to find any help with this issue.
I am thankful to have been able to get this far with the help from the XDA community posts I never needed direct help even with prior phone rootings but this one has got me stumped. Thanks in advance

You need to flash Phil's recovery version 6.0.7.9. If you cant restore your backup with Phil's then I'm thinking you might be sol. Make sure you know where you saved the backup to. It's either on the phone's internal sd or external sd card. Choose the correct location in Phil's recovery and if it isn't corrupt it should work. You may also want to copy your backup onto your pc just in case because that's your only backup and doing a full wipe or odin restore could permanently delete it. Good luck.

tx_dbs_tx said:
You need to flash Phil's recovery version 6.0.7.9. If you cant restore your backup with Phil's then I'm thinking you might be sol. Make sure you know where you saved the backup to. It's either on the phone's internal sd or external sd card. Choose the correct location in Phil's recovery and if it isn't corrupt it should work. You may also want to copy your backup onto your pc just in case because that's your only backup and doing a full wipe or odin restore could permanently delete it. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply. I am at work right now and left the phone with my wife with a working rom. I will try phils recovery when I get home. As far as backups, I have two copies. One on my SD card and the other on PC but if they're both fried I guess that negates my efforts in redundancy. It's hard to believe the backup got corrupt so quickly. I have another backup of the 2nd rom I flashed and that one wont install as well.
Is there something I am doing wrong? If the backup file is corrupt, is there a way to extract contacts seperately out of backup?

Method b.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2648855
My wife does that too. Sorry

ColeTrain! said:
Method b.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2648855
My wife does that too. Sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Life of a married man. Haha!
Well, as my backup file was done with TWRP, I tried method B with TWRP recovery and it wont work so now I'm in the process of trying method A. Will update once I tried it.
I think my problem has to do with TWRP not playing friendly with 4.3 ROMS. If that is the case method A looks like it will work.:fingers-crossed:

alexandnen said:
Life of a married man. Haha!
Well, as my backup file was done with TWRP, I tried method B with TWRP recovery and it wont work so now I'm in the process of trying method A. Will update once I tried it.
I think my problem has to do with TWRP not playing friendly with 4.3 ROMS. If that is the case method A looks like it will work.:fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly right. Bootloader isn't playing well with TWRP recovery. Phil"s 6.0.7.9 seems to be compatible in most ROM vs bootloader situations. Don't use latest version of Phil's recovery as it doesn't work as well and most people recommend this as well.
If Phil's recovery won't flash your restore then Odin all the way back to stock unrooted LK8 ROM then root it with the Toolkit and flash TWRP from the toolkit at the same time. Then see if you can restore at that point.

Looks like this project has come to an end. My wife likes her new rom and doesn't want to let me work on her phone anymore. She was able to get most of her contacts back I will make sure she backs her contacts to google and I will try to convince her to install Titanium backup to backup all her app data.
Unfortunately all I have is a work issued iphone that I have no interest in jailbreaking. I really don't see the point.
I am still confident that I could have eventually restored her backup successfully with the help here.
Thank you tx_dbx_tx and coletrain for your help.

[Q] Helium vs. TWRP

Hello there,
I have just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 LTE T805 and I am going to root it using the method described in
the thread below
[ROOT]Official CF-Auto-Root By Chainfire. [T-700][T-705][T-800][T805]
But I don't know which one is better for my tablet Helium or TWRP? And where can i find a tutorial on how to install either of them? If there is not a tutorial available, could you please guide me through the whole proccess?
I have read on another thread that I could use an app, by the name Flashify currently available on Play store, but i don't know how to use it and if it is safe to use it with the CF-Auto-Root method mentioned above?
(Lots of people that used this app were pretty happy after using it and without problems too, but i want your experience on the matter)
To tell you the truth :angel: I am a huge fan of TWRP and I would have been very glad if I could use it again on my new tablet also.
(I had it installed on my previous tablet an Asus Transformer Pad and it worked flawlessly).
So to sum it up
Could you please tell me what to do and how to do it in order to backup my tablet before i Root it?
Which one Helium or TWRP is safer to use?
Thank you all in advance for your time,

Heluim is to backup your apps/data. Twrp can make an image of your whole os and data so you can restore from bootloops. Installing twrp via flashify is safe with cfautoroot as cfautoroot just flashes root and reverts back to your old recovery. Just download flashify, pick install recovery, then hit twrp and pick twrp 2.8.1.0 and hit yup. Then reboot and youll have twrp. You must cfautoroot first to use flashify.
Dont use twrp 2.8.3.0 as it doesnt work.
I would perfer twrp over heluim becuase its a custom recovery. Not a fan of helium as I use titianuim backup.

I would use TWRP. Basically, root first, then install TWRP via Flashify. Version 2.8.4.0, the latest, works fine. I have used it to both back up and restore and there are no problems. It does have a tendency to enable MTP when you first run it which will throw an error when you do a backup (the error is meaningless and doesn't actually do any harm, but the red type will cause panic, so the first time you go into TWRP hit the mount button and make sure MTP is disabled).
I also use Titanium Backup for backing up and restoring apps and recommend it highly. Between TWRP and TB, I can wipe, install a ROM and restore all my apps in about an hour and the TWRP Nandroid backups mean I can always easily recover if something isn't quite right.:good:

Thank you!!! Thank you both so much, for the much needed advice, much obliged!!! :good:
I will do as you advised me and thank God you clarified everything about the differences between Helium vs. TWRP :good:

Hookmt said:
I would use TWRP. Basically, root first, then install TWRP via Flashify. Version 2.8.4.0, the latest, works fine. I have used it to both back up and restore and there are no problems. It does have a tendency to enable MTP when you first run it which will throw an error when you do a backup (the error is meaningless and doesn't actually do any harm, but the red type will cause panic, so the first time you go into TWRP hit the mount button and make sure MTP is disabled).
I also use Titanium Backup for backing up and restoring apps and recommend it highly. Between TWRP and TB, I can wipe, install a ROM and restore all my apps in about an hour and the TWRP Nandroid backups mean I can always easily recover if something isn't quite right.:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually just restore the data partition after installing a new rom instead of using TB then just wipe caches. . I only use TB for backing up and restoring certain apps or data. Doesnt take me anywhere near an hour, using either method.

ashyx said:
I usually just restore the data partition after installing a new rom instead of using TB then just wipe caches. . I only use TB for backing up and restoring certain apps or data. Doesnt take me anywhere near an hour, using either method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice idea, thanks. In the case of a clean flash, however, which is the only time I'm using TB to restore, I often want to restore only some apps and use things for a while and not everything I was experimenting with before.