[Q] Why are TWRP backups so much bigger than CWM backups? - AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III

before i went to 4.2, i was using CWM and each backup usually only took up about ~1 gb of space.
now im using TWRP since it seems to work better with 4.2 and was recommended with 4.2, and backups are almost 2gb each.
i dont have much more than i did before. and this eats up SO MUCH SPACE on the internal SD i can only leave one backup on my phone, whereas i could have 2-3 backups before.
I;m not planning to jump back to cwm because its a huge hassle to to change recoveries. but is there anything i can do to downsize it? or save to my external SD and still have it working?
Ive tried backing up to external sd with bad results before.
Thanks for any help

Did you take the blobs folder in account when looking at the size of the CWM backups? I'm sure I'm over simplifying here, but CWM takes a 'snapshot' of your system on the first backup, and then only backs up things that have changed from then on, even if you delete the first backup. It makes things quicker for sure and since it only backs up changes, the backups are smaller too as they share some data. TWRP does a full backup each time. I use TWRP, but do miss the quick backups that CWM gave me.

lordmorphous said:
Did you take the blobs folder in account when looking at the size of the CWM backups? I'm sure I'm over simplifying here, but CWM takes a 'snapshot' of your system on the first backup, and then only backs up things that have changed from then on, even if you delete the first backup. It makes things quicker for sure and since it only backs up changes, the backups are smaller too as they share some data. TWRP does a full backup each time. I use TWRP, but do miss the quick backups that CWM gave me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, you are correct! That "blobs" folder is an extremely evil and deceiving... Its HUGE. I like TWRP because it backs up everything in one shot, so I can pull back ups off my phone and save them on my computer for "just in case." Can't do that with CWR....

BAM1789 said:
Yep, you are correct! That "blobs" folder is an extremely evil and deceiving... Its HUGE. I like TWRP because it backs up everything in one shot, so I can pull back ups off my phone and save them on my computer for "just in case." Can't do that with CWR....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have the option of doing a nandroid backup the old way in CWM. You just have to change the backup format and it will backup without the blobs folder. It's how I do it.

Enable compression on TWRP. Takes a bit longer but can usually decrease the size around 30% or so.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

Related

[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] 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..

CLOCKWORK recovery backup blob folder info!

Hey guy's just figured id copy and paste this article I read about recovery backups and blob folder within..
If your like me you probaly wondering what this new blob folder is and why is it consuming alit of space...so I was gonna delete it but decided not too and read first this is what I found:
ClockworkMod Recovery now deduplicates files between builds. This results in way smaller backups.
Don't delete /sdcard/clockworkmod/blobs
Overview
I've gotten a few questions about how this works, so I figured I'd make a post on it.
https://plus.google.com/103583939320326217147/posts/L5aVZe7C9vg
Basically, here's what happens:
The files being backed up are hashed (sha256, not that it matters). Then it checks for a file with the name of the hash in
/sdcard/clockworkmod/blobs
So, if the hash of the file was*c5273884b90d490134e7737b29a65405cea0f7bb786ca82c6337ceb24de6f5ed, it looks for /sdcard/clockworkmod/blobs/c5273884b90d490134e7737b29a65405cea0f7bb786ca82c6337ceb24de6f5ed
If the hash file is found, it continues on to the next file. Otherwise, it copies the file to the blobs directory with the file name being the hash.
ROMs and user data, for the most part, do not change too much between builds and backups. So, your APKs, system files, etc, are generally only stored once. This saves a ton of space. Especially between incremental backups.
Some of you may be thinking "well, how do I delete a backup?".
First, never delete the blobs directory. This would actually delete all your backups by rendering them unusable.
Simply delete the usual backup directory, and the next time you run a backup, all the unused hash files will be automatically delete (a process known as garbage collection). The recovery will show "Freeing space..." while this is happening.
Thank you for the info! I was just looking for this today as my blobs was about 4gb large
Question:
If I wanted to free up space and backup my backups to my PC, could I just move the backup folders with the entire Blobs folder and be good to go?
Thanks.
msherman123 said:
Thank you for the info! I was just looking for this today as my blobs was about 4gb large
Question:
If I wanted to free up space and backup my backups to my PC, could I just move the backup folders with the entire Blobs folder and be good to go?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah personally that's what I did to save my backups i needed in case of anything...since the new system deletes your old one when making a new backup..it cleans or so called "unused space" now....what I did is save the whole clockwork folder and placed it on my computer and save them as according to what ROM now...this new setup I don't like....I had 4 GB in my blob folder too...what a waste of space. for a new idea..I understand there method of a full proof backup system..but why change something that wasn't broke in the first place right?...
wish777 said:
Yeah personally that's what I did to save my backups i needed in case of anything...since the new system deletes your old one when making a new backup..it cleans or so called "unused space" now....what I did is save the whole clockwork folder and placed it on my computer and save them as according to what ROM now...this new setup I don't like....I had 4 GB in my blob folder too...what a waste of space. for a new idea..I understand there method of a full proof backup system..but why change something that wasn't broke in the first place right?...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure, but doesn't cwm have an option to backup to single file like it used to?
Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk 2
I'm not sure man..if you see it let me know..I'd love the old setup. This new way is horrible... Lol
wish777 said:
I'm not sure man..if you see it let me know..I'd love the old setup. This new way is horrible... Lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In theory this should be a much more efficient use of space. Im sure each backup contains a lot of files/data that is already backed up in a previous backup basically wasting space on redundant data. This is kinda like backup cubing sorta...at least the way Im thinking of it. This method saves nothing ONLY if every single backup is absolutely unique which would make your blob huge. I like the idea....but I use twrp so it doesnt affect me.
wish777 said:
I'm not sure man..if you see it let me know..I'd love the old setup. This new way is horrible... Lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have cwm installed, but check settings, I am confident you'll find an option for tar or whatever format it was before.
Have you tried twrp? I heard great things about it.
Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk 2
sonny21 said:
I don't have cwm installed, but check settings, I am confident you'll find an option for tar or whatever format it was before.
Have you tried twrp? I heard great things about it.
Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know I been flashing roms for so many years that I guess im old school. .lol I never tried twrp..I guess I should try it from alot of people giving it such postive reviews..I guess im just stuck in my ways ibshould be more openmined about recovery....lol....thank you
wish777 said:
You know I been flashing roms for so many years that I guess im old school. .lol I never tried twrp..I guess I should try it from alot of people giving it such postive reviews..I guess im just stuck in my ways ibshould be more openmined about recovery....lol....thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah no problem, usually I like to stick to what works for me as well.
Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk 2
wish777 said:
You know I been flashing roms for so many years that I guess im old school. .lol I never tried twrp..I guess I should try it from alot of people giving it such postive reviews..I guess im just stuck in my ways ibshould be more openmined about recovery....lol....thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have found that TWRP and CWM have there specific needs and functions. I usually try both when settleing on a dailu driver. Kinda odd but they handle data slightly different and bugs turn up on a install depending on one or the other. (Under controlled conditions and data that you can reference) . I have just had to accept that some things work well with TWRP and others with CWM.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
Thank you guys for the info ..
wish777 said:
Hey guy's just figured id copy and paste this article I read about recovery backups and blob folder within..
If your like me you probaly wondering what this new blob folder is and why is it consuming alit of space...so I was gonna delete it but decided not too and read first this is what I found:
ClockworkMod Recovery now deduplicates files between builds. This results in way smaller backups.
Don't delete /sdcard/clockworkmod/blobs
Overview
I've gotten a few questions about how this works, so I figured I'd make a post on it.
https://plus.google.com/103583939320326217147/posts/L5aVZe7C9vg
Basically, here's what happens:
The files being backed up are hashed (sha256, not that it matters). Then it checks for a file with the name of the hash in
/sdcard/clockworkmod/blobs
So, if the hash of the file was*c5273884b90d490134e7737b29a65405cea0f7bb786ca82c6337ceb24de6f5ed, it looks for /sdcard/clockworkmod/blobs/c5273884b90d490134e7737b29a65405cea0f7bb786ca82c6337ceb24de6f5ed
If the hash file is found, it continues on to the next file. Otherwise, it copies the file to the blobs directory with the file name being the hash.
ROMs and user data, for the most part, do not change too much between builds and backups. So, your APKs, system files, etc, are generally only stored once. This saves a ton of space. Especially between incremental backups.
Some of you may be thinking "well, how do I delete a backup?".
First, never delete the blobs directory. This would actually delete all your backups by rendering them unusable.
Simply delete the usual backup directory, and the next time you run a backup, all the unused hash files will be automatically delete (a process known as garbage collection). The recovery will show "Freeing space..." while this is happening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what if you just want to backup your nandroids to an external hard drive. I just copied most of my nandroids from the phone to my hard drive. and deleted them from the phone.
i didn't touch the blobs folder.
So now my backups I copied to my hard drive are useless without the blobs? And on top of that, if I understand correctly, the blobs needed to make those backups functional will be automatically deleted the next time i do a backup?
this sounds horribly horribly wrong. how do i copy functional nandroids from my phone to my hard drive?
mistermojorizin said:
what if you just want to backup your nandroids to an external hard drive. I just copied most of my nandroids from the phone to my hard drive. and deleted them from the phone.
i didn't touch the blobs folder.
So now my backups I copied to my hard drive are useless without the blobs? And on top of that, if I understand correctly, the blobs needed to make those backups functional will be automatically deleted the next time i do a backup?
this sounds horribly horribly wrong. how do i copy functional nandroids from my phone to my hard drive?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question, I made 3 backups one of the stock rom, which I stored to my mac.
The most recent back up the blobs are still on my phone, does that mash my mac backups are defunct now?
Cheers.
Great post wish777. I wondered about deleting a CWM backup when I read about the blob system, so it's great to have the garbage collection clarified.
Still, I agree with the other posts, the blob system makes moving a backup off the phone and back again unreliable. I am also old school - I ghost everything. That's why I'm using TWRP instead. I'm happier just dealing with image files that stand on their own.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app

[Q] How big is your Nandroid /blobs folder?

Hi! I am new to making Nadroid backups. Yesterday, I could've swore my /blobs folder was about 3GB. Today, when I made another Nandroid and it was at 6GB.
I'm on the dedup method, so my /blobs folder shouldn't be increasing. I also tried "free unused backup data" and still at 6GB.
Here's my storage usage, attached. Am I in the right ballpark or is something odd here?
P.S. If anyone has a Nandroid backup management system, let me know! I keep jumping between CWM Recovery to make them and then to Android to fix all the things CWM Recovery does wrong (like the date-for-the-file-name; it's not 1970 and the month/day/time are all incorrect) and can't do (like viewing the backups, renaming the backups, uploading the backups to cloud storage).
My blobs folder at one point was at 4gig. I deleted all my backups except for two. Went into cwm and selected free space under backup/restore and brought it down to 1.01gig.
Mind you the only backup I care about (rooted, stock with TW) is 1.8gig but I have that on external and on my computer just in case.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
KorGuy123 said:
My blobs folder at one point was at 4gig. I deleted all my backups except for two. Went into cwm and selected free space under backup/restore and brought it down to 1.01gig.
Mind you the only backup I care about (rooted, stock with TW) is 1.8gig but I have that on external and on my computer just in case.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...that may be it: this new backup required new blobs for whatever reason. Let me figure out a way to restore SystemUI and SecSettings to stock and then maybe delete those early backups...
How much space have you used,by chance, on the internal SD card?
~Ibrahim~
the blobs folder continues to grow with each backup. the only time it would decrease is you delete a backup then clear unused data after booting to recovery.
this blobs folder will drive your media scanner CRAZY.
my suggestion is to boot into recovery, set the backup type to .tar rather than the default .dup. This unfortunately will cause each backup to take up approx 1.5g, but that is an incredible reduction in indvidual files for the media scanner to scan. but, thats what ext sd cards are for
after making this change, if you have .dup backups you want to convert to .tar, you will have to restore each then backup again.
ikjadoon said:
Hmmm...that may be it: this new backup required new blobs for whatever reason. Let me figure out a way to restore SystemUI and SecSettings to stock and then maybe delete those early backups...
How much space have you used,by chance, on the internal SD card?
~Ibrahim~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I formatted internal when I went to PAC-Man I've done one back since so my internal is fairly empty. (I switched to TWRP recovery and the backups are around 750mbps)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Russ77 said:
the blobs folder continues to grow with each backup. the only time it would decrease is you delete a backup then clear unused data after booting to recovery.
this blobs folder will drive your media scanner CRAZY.
my suggestion is to boot into recovery, set the backup type to .tar rather than the default .dup. This unfortunately will cause each backup to take up approx 1.5g, but that is an incredible reduction in indvidual files for the media scanner to scan. but, thats what ext sd cards are for
after making this change, if you have .dup backups you want to convert to .tar, you will have to restore each then backup again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YES. YES. THAT'S THE OTHER ISSUE! These things are all related! My Media scanner, out of *nowhere*, exploded to 50% battery usage.
Going to *.tar, then. Thank you hugely.
@KorGuy
I may transition to TWRP. CWM is a fine recovery, but it's backup solution isn't up to par. Appreciate the help!
0... I don't make nandroids... use the external sd...
Quasimodem said:
0... I don't make nandroids... use the external sd...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, so how do you backup? I make Nandroids onto the external SD.
ikjadoon said:
Wait, so how do you backup? I make Nandroids onto the external SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't make backups or use tibu...
Not sent from your phone...
Quasimodem said:
I don't make backups or use tibu...
Not sent from your phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're brave. But probably more experienced. I bootloop'd my GS3 after just trying to modify the framework-res.apk and my Nandroid saved me! But, I'm on TWRP now and it looks much better.
ikjadoon said:
You're brave. But probably more experienced. I bootloop'd my GS3 after just trying to modify the framework-res.apk and my Nandroid saved me! But, I'm on TWRP now and it looks much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got everything I need on the SD to fix whatever... not really worried about it...
Not sent from your phone...
To be honest the huge blobs folder you are stuck with using cwm is exactly why I switched to twrp recovery and I was a long time user and big fan of cwm for a long time. But the blobs really screwed that up for me anyway. Twrp works great and is better in my opinion ...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
I'm using cwm 6.0.2.2 touch recovery and it doesn't have none of that blob folder crap
sent from the dark side of the universe....
thatsupnow said:
I'm using cwm 6.0.2.2 touch recovery and it doesn't have none of that blob folder crap
sent from the dark side of the universe....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just updated cwm and noticed that the default is now .tar
Good call from Koush, then. They're a good idea, but executed poorly.
But, CWM has problems for me beyond blobs: it mislabels backups without a way to rename in CWM, somehow mismatched the MD5 of my backups (until I renamed them to "backup" ), and doesn't seem to compress backups = all fixed in TWRP.
Battery life is fixed!

[Q] HTC Restore never works

Hi,
I've had the same problem with my M7 and now my M8. I can do HTC backups no problem, but when the time comes to restore, it never works, it'll get to about 37% and stay there for hours until I reboot. Some stuff gets restored but not much.
I tried:
- Skipping the restore at first boot and restoring after - Same problem
- Skip the restore at first boot, kill all the apps, manual restore - Same problem
The sign-in to Google plus works, it does find the backup each time, it just stalls completely when I restore.
Titanium backup, if your rooted. Can't beat it. ?
Sorry for indirect solution... But I froze HTC backup on day one. ?
Darth said:
Titanium backup, if your rooted. Can't beat it. ?
Sorry for indirect solution... But I froze HTC backup on day one. ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I also tried HTC Backup once and froze it, didn't want to properly restore for me either. I rather make backups of the entire data partition and just number it appropriately. For example: Made backup on 1 October, Place it in a folder named "Data October" next backup at 1 November in a folder named "Data November" <With that backup in the folder I make a text document with info of all additional programs/changes I made since last backup, in other words, a mini change log. Will make it easier to restore to a point prior to a point where I had an "incident" (Even though I never had one *touch wood* ). I use Titanium rarely if ever, used to do it a lot but I prefer backing up the entire data partition, as big as it is.
BerndM14 said:
Yeah I also tried HTC Backup once and froze it, didn't want to properly restore for me either. I rather make backups of the entire data partition and just number it appropriately. For example: Made backup on 1 October, Place it in a folder named "Data October" next backup at 1 November in a folder named "Data November" <With that backup in the folder I make a text document with info of all additional programs/changes I made since last update, in other words, a mini change log. Will make it easier to restore to a point prior to a point where I had an "incident" (Even though I never had one *touch wood* ). I use Titanium rarely if ever, used to do it a lot but I prefer backing up the entire data partition, as big as it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, a good way to go! ?
I just prefer Tb. I have control over each app that way. But I have a Data nandroid also... Just in case. ?

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