Develop Bugs

Best way to make a full 100% backup of phone ?

Hi guys .. I have had my Desire Z for a little while and I want to play around with ROMs now ... I am looking for a way to make a *full* backup of the phone .. That means the OS itself, all its settings (alarms, personalization stuff, stored passwords, installed apps, etc ..), all application and personal data (both on ROM and SD card), etc ...
That is, one backup that when restored, returns the complete phone including all its settings and data to the state the phone was in when the backup was created ..
Now there are two Market tools I've found that claim to do something similar: My Backup Pro and Titanium Backup, and I also hear that ClockWorkMod can create backups ...
But I don't know if these tools backup *everything* like I want, so any advice given here would be really appreciated ..

Ok, the only way to make a 100% backup is when you are rooted.
When you are rooted you can use titanium backup to back up all your apps, data & settings. Then when you install a new ROM you can easily restore everything.
The back up you do in CWM is called a nandroid and this backs up your entire ROM including apps, data & settings. as soon as you are rooted you will want to do this so you have a back up of your stock ROM incase anything goes wrong and you need to get your stock ROM easily.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

cjward23 said:
Ok, the only way to make a 100% backup is when you are rooted.
When you are rooted you can use titanium backup to back up all your apps, data & settings. Then when you install a new ROM you can easily restore everything.
The back up you do in CWM is called a nandroid and this backs up your entire ROM including apps, data & settings. as soon as you are rooted you will want to do this so you have a back up of your stock ROM incase anything goes wrong and you need to get your stock ROM easily.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
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Ok thanks for that advice ...
So assuming my phone is rooted (it isn't now but I will do it once this issue is resolved), which method is better for me which backs up *everything* (stock OS, personal data, app data, media, settings, SD card stuff, etc ..) ? CWM or Titanium Backup ?
I have heard that CWM doesn't backup everything .. that it leaves some stuff out (not exactly sure what this is though) .. :/

ahmadka said:
Ok thanks for that advice ...
So assuming my phone is rooted (it isn't now but I will do it once this issue is resolved), which method is better for me which backs up *everything* (stock OS, personal data, app data, media, settings, SD card stuff, etc ..) ? CWM or Titanium Backup ?
I have heard that CWM doesn't backup everything .. that it leaves some stuff out (not exactly sure what this is though) .. :/
Click to expand...
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never ever ever use TiBU for backing up anything other than downloaded apps. (imo, some people may disagree, but I have never had success with TiBU outside of saving a few downloaded apps... and even then it seems to be hit or miss for me)
CWM is the best option for creating a full backup. when you restore a nandroid backup, it's like going back in time... everything is exactly as it was when that backup was created.

pmcqueen said:
never ever ever use TiBU for backing up anything other than downloaded apps. (imo, some people may disagree, but I have never had success with TiBU outside of saving a few downloaded apps... and even then it seems to be hit or miss for me)
CWM is the best option for creating a full backup. when you restore a nandroid backup, it's like going back in time... everything is exactly as it was when that backup was created.
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Hmm ... Are you absolutely sure that CWM backs up everything ? That is, the stock ROM, all my android's settings, sms, contacts, emails, list of apps installed, app data, my personal data (photos, videos, music, documents, etc ..) ? And does it also backup data from both the built-in memory and stuff on the SD card ?
Reason why I ask this is because this afternoon I came across a thread (can't seem to find it now) where somebody said CWM leaves some stuff out in backing up and then somebody else suggested using Titanium Backup ...
So I want to proceed with CWM only if you're dead sure that it backs up *everyyyyyythinggggg* ...
Btw, I don't mean to question to knowledge, I just want to be sure, thats all

cjward23 said:
Ok, the only way to make a 100% backup is when you are rooted.
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Click to collapse
+1
Root + Titanium Backup.

How can we back up the stock rom?? Cwm will not be present on the stock rom. So how?
Sent from my GT-I5800 using XDA App

mmb_z said:
+1
Root + Titanium Backup.
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Click to collapse
Conflicting statements people .. :/
CWM or titanium backup ?
Btw, does titanium backup also backup the stock OS/ROM ?

vikraam said:
How can we back up the stock rom?? Cwm will not be present on the stock rom. So how?
Sent from my GT-I5800 using XDA App
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When you root you will still be using your stock ROM, you then back up your stock rooted ROM. There is no way to back up an unrooted ROM.
Unrooted stock ROM's are available in the form of an official RUU most of which you will find if you read the stickies in the development section of the forums.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

ahmadka said:
Conflicting statements people .. :/
CWM or titanium backup ?
Btw, does titanium backup also backup the stock OS/ROM ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium will not back up the os, you can use to back up all of the system apps and data. But as a previous poster said this is not good a good idea as restoring them tends to be problematic.
And don't worry about your sdcard flashing roms will not affect any data on your sdcard.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

mmb_z said:
+1
Root + Titanium Backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-____________-
NOoooOoOooOoo.
ahmadka said:
post 5
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Click to collapse
the only thing you could theoretically lose are photos, videos, etc that are stored on the sdcard... but this would only happen if you deleted/formatted the sd card. otherwise, they just move with you from rom to rom.
I don't know what people think titanium backup is for, but seriously... it's not as magnificent as it is commonly made out to be. its only real use is restoring stuff from /data (ie apps and settings). even then, it is known to be problematic. I have used it in the past but I finally got sick of it when I realized that half of the time I used it to backup/restore it ended up doing more harm than good.
CWM is the best option for making a full backup of EVERYTHING on your phone (remember, your sd card is not part of your phone... it doesn't get backed up/restored via CWM). restoring a CWM backup will revert your phone to the exact state it was in at the time of the backup.

I used titanium backup and it worked for everything. Even backed the stuff up to my PC.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

hardy1906 said:
I used titanium backup and it worked for everything. Even backed the stuff up to my PC.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
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that's awesome, but you will encounter problems with Ti backup if you try to restore anything from /system after installing a new rom. if you've come from one aosp rom to another, you might get lucky and not have any trouble (especially if they are a similar flavor of aosp), but if you try to restore anything from a sense rom's /system to an aosp rom's /system, or vice versa, you're in for a lot of force closing and general bass-ackwardness.
op: the BEST way is a nandroid backup. if you try and restore titanium backup apps and settings over whichever rom you've installed, you can almost guarantee something will be broken... just do it the right way and do a nandroid backup via CWM and save yourself the trouble.

Guys I forgot to mention, my phone is NOT currently rooted (Yes I realize I should have mentioned this in the first post) .. so what can I use now to backup everything like I want ?

ahmadka said:
Guys I forgot to mention, my phone is NOT currently rooted (Yes I realize I should have mentioned this in the first post) .. so what can I use now to backup everything like I want ?
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Not much really, there are apps available to back up sms and contacts will be synced to Google.

todo backup by easeus...free too. works great
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

1) Root.
2) Install CWM Recovery.
3) Nandroid.
There's your backup.

How do you guys do backups when you try out different roms? Am I bound to lose scores and settings in games and apps every time i change rom?
(sorry for what may be a stupid question, but i understood the answers given earlier that making a Nandroid recovery will also recover the rom at the time of the backup not just apps and settings)

glx-rider said:
How do you guys do backups when you try out different roms? Am I bound to lose scores and settings in games and apps every time i change rom?
(sorry for what may be a stupid question, but i understood the answers given earlier that making a Nandroid recovery will also recover the rom at the time of the backup not just apps and settings)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A nandroid back does a complete back of system, apps, data, and settings. When you restore a nandroid your phone will be restored to the exact point it was at before you preformed the nandroid.
To back up apps and data, you will need to use an app like titanium backup. you then can restore apps and data, including game save and scores after you flash a new rom.
But it is not advised to back up and restore system data and settings with titanium back up

before i rooted i took backups whit MyBackup.
after you get rooted, take Clean CWM backup of your phone.
when you are up and running on a custom rom, take CWM backup, and back up downloaded apps whit Titanium backup.
If you are going from sense rom to sense rom, you dont necessaryli need to wipe your data and apps, so you don't have to restore anything. If you are going for completely different rom, you need wipe everything, after you are running in new rom, you cant get just the apps from cwm backup, it would restore your old rom too, so now restore your apps and stuff from TI backups. and if you don't like the new rom, use CWM backup to go back to your last rom.
so you need both backups cwm and Ti..
and as said before app backups might cause some problems when going from rom to rom
I have been jumping between different MIUI roms, they are basically the same so i haven't wiped anything(except dalvik cache) when flashing new rom, so everything will stay the way they are, and no ned to restore anything, if that's the case.
What comes to the stuff on SDcard, it will be just fine, if you want to back up your pics/music/vids, etc from your sdcard, just copy them to your computer.

Custom ROM problems

everytime ive installed a custom rom it breaks after i reboot the phone.
ive tried gingerburst, insertCoin, aceSmod for HTC desire and they dont work very well at all...
after i reboot the phone after restoring via titanium backup my widgets get messed up and my htc people app doesnt work properly either.
am i restoring it wrong or something with titanium backup? :S has anyone else came across this problem?

With your apps that the widgets are based on, are they saved to internal storage? Because if they're saved to sd card they will not work, they must be in internal storage to work.
Sent from my CM7.1 Desire using XDA Premium App

Did you restore the red apps with titanium? Don't do this. It will corrupt your Rom.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

N3m3515 said:
Did you restore the red apps with titanium? Don't do this. It will corrupt your Rom.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
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i click on menu>batches>restore all apps with data then select all and restore. take it this is bad then?

^No need to restore system apps (the ones in red), because your new system apps are the ones that came with your new ROM. Restore only user apps + data.

thanks guys

timmaaa said:
With your apps that the widgets are based on, are they saved to internal storage? Because if they're saved to sd card they will not work, they must be in internal storage to work.
Sent from my CM7.1 Desire using XDA Premium App
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Unless one is using a2sd+. Then android "thinks" they are still stored in internal memory (although they are stored in ext partition of sd card) and so the widgets still work.

just installed a custom ROM again and restored with titanium backup.
this time i only backed up the green apps/data and only restored the green apps/data as well.
still the same problem though after first reboot.

Do you run a complete wipe when you flash a new rom? I suggest to delete ALL backups made with titanium backup, run a complete new one, flash new rom with complete wipe, reboot after first boot of the new rom, and then restore apps + userdata with tb.
If this does not help, install all apps manually and only restore their data with tb.

MatDrOiD said:
Do you run a complete wipe when you flash a new rom? I suggest to delete ALL backups made with titanium backup, run a complete new one, flash new rom with complete wipe, reboot after first boot of the new rom, and then restore apps + userdata with tb.
If this does not help, install all apps manually and only restore their data with tb.
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yes, i do run a complete wipe. i will try again later thanks.

MatDroid, I think if he has more than a hundred user apps (like me), it'd be bloody to re-install apps manually. This can often be fixed by Root Toolbox's "Fix Permissions" function, which fixes broken market links and mismatched backups/restores. Dunno if the free version of RT has it though, as I'm using the paid Pro version.

[Q] MTD to BML backups

I'm aware of the steps needed to acomplish this (odin to stock, repartition checked), but I would like to confirm if this applies for backups as well. Would it be ill advised to attempt to restore a BML backup on an MTD ROM? I left some very important data I need in that backup, would like to get a hold of it soonest.
Also, if I can't restore and have to odin back to stock, do I have to flash the ROM before I restore the backup, or is it safe to restore as soon as I'm back to rooted BML?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

If I understand your question, you are on MTD and heading back to BML? There are 2 things you can do. 1) use Titanium backup and restore the data to the app that you don't want to leave behind or and this is not recommended but should work
2)Edit your nandroid and everywhere it says yaffs2 change it to ext4 or rfs depending on what you will be on in the file names, and also open up nandroid.md5 with notepad or some editor and do a find and replace all for the same (yaffs2 to ext4 or rfs). Then after flashing your ROM do an advanced restore data from that edited nandroid. Make sure the nandroid is not renamed when you first backup.

kennyglass123 said:
If I understand your question, you are on MTD and heading back to BML? There are 2 things you can do. 1) use Titanium backup and restore the data to the app that you don't want to leave behind or and this is not recommended but should work
2)Edit your nandroid and everywhere it says yaffs2 change it to ext4 or rfs depending on what you will be on in the file names, and also open up nandroid.md5 with notepad or some editor and do a find and replace all for the same (yaffs2 to ext4 or rfs). Then after flashing your ROM do an advanced restore data from that edited nandroid. Make sure the nandroid is not renamed when you first backup.
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Was in idiot mode when I flashed the MTD ROM (CM7.2 Nightly 25), didn't back up apps with TB so I guess that only leaves option #2. Finding and replacing text sounds simple enough, but what is the worst that could happen if I manage to somehow screw it up? Would rather not do it if it can make my phone implode. At any rate thanks for the reply :>
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

Rename your old backups to .yaffs2 and then advanced restore data. If you screw up, reflash cm7.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Ok, so you are ON MTD and want to restore stuff from the BML backup. Titanium backup let's you restore from a BML nandroid or do what Marcusant said and change all the ext4 or rfs to yaffs2 and edit the nandroid.md5. Worse that can happen is restore fails with md5 error.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

so its safe to restore apps and some data using titanium backups created in bml onto mtd?
also titanium lets you restore from nandroid? is this a new feature?

jmsnyc said:
so its safe to restore apps and some data using titanium backups created in bml onto mtd?
also titanium lets you restore from nandroid? is this a new feature?
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Click to collapse
The only difference between bml and mtd is partition sizes. Everything else is the same

jmsnyc said:
so its safe to restore apps and some data using titanium backups created in bml onto mtd?
also titanium lets you restore from nandroid? is this a new feature?
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Click to collapse
Yes it's safe and yes that is a new feature.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

[Q] Restore selectively from nAndroid?

So I was wondering if I could just go through a nAndroid and delete all the system data, and only leave the apps folder --- I know its more complicated than that --- turn it into a zip and install the zip in recovery, and use this to restore apps, rather than having to reboot, install titanium, etc... just have a standard restore app file created from a nAndroid that automatically does all the my user apps.
I'm sure playing with this is tempting fate with the hassles of having to re-wipe and re-rom or whatever...
the goal is to have a flashable zip ready to go so I can install test roms, and restore my user apps more quickly between each test...

govindadas said:
So I was wondering if I could just go through a nAndroid and delete all the system data, and only leave the apps folder --- I know its more complicated than that --- turn it into a zip and install the zip in recovery, and use this to restore apps, rather than having to reboot, install titanium, etc... just have a standard restore app file created from a nAndroid that automatically does all the my user apps.
I'm sure playing with this is tempting fate with the hassles of having to re-wipe and re-rom or whatever...
the goal is to have a flashable zip ready to go so I can install test roms, and restore my user apps more quickly between each test...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can selectively restore apps from a nandroid backup using titanium backup. But it sounds like you want a recovery flashable zip. I don't know how to do that.
-Sent from a GSM Galaxy Nexus (RAScream+Trinity).-

When you go to Backup and Restore. Go to advanced restore and restore just the data. This will give you all your apps and such.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I think making a flashable zip of selected apps can also be done using titanium BU. It has wwaaaayyyyy more features than I could/would ever use. I've had the pro version a few years, and dont know how to use half its features. Anyhow, you might look there.
Also, I know if you have a partitioned SD card and using apps2sd, when you do a nand backup, you can backup and restore sd-ext, keeping all apps in tact. Not sure what the equivalent would be without removable storage.
sent from a shining jewel 4g LTE

ÜBER™ said:
When you go to Backup and Restore. Go to advanced restore and restore just the data. This will give you all your apps and such.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Click to collapse
This will often cause boot loops when going between incompatible ROMs.
But yeah, a TB restore from nandroid is a reasonable solution.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

cool! thanks for the info!
So it is possible, what I am suggesting, or by using clockworkmod or titanium to selectively restore data only from a nAndroid, but can create problems.
Is it possible to delete all non-user-app data from the nAndroid data backup? I mean restoring system-app data could be problematic, but restoring user-app data shouldn't be problematic, right?

I don't know about deleting system app data from the nandroid backup.
I do know that when restoring with TB from a nandroid, you can choose to select missing apps only, which means it won't attempt to restore data to any apps you already have. And then if there are any individual apps you missed when doing that, you can go in again and restore just those.

Which partitions to backup on first stock nandroid

I Did one nandroid backup with twrp recovery, I want to make a 2nd after i restore all my market apps one by one because for some reason app market doesnt auto restore or let you check mark all your owned/paid/downloaded apps... you apparently have to download each one by one .Anyway I want to back up all the the correct partitions besides the ones that are auto checked by default, like does efs need to be backed up or any others besides system data and boot
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I backup every partition except cache. The efs partition is ALL important. You should always back that up.
Also you should get the Titanium Backup App from the Play Store. You can use it to backup and restore your apps and data before and after a flash. You won't have to download and install your apps one by one anymore. I suggest you get the paid version. It is well worth the money.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup