Develop Bugs

When wiping data, will I lose "SD Card" data?

Will wiping the data (before ROM flash) also wipe the "SD Card" data? I know on other phones, that have a physical SD card, when you wipe data the SD data remains. But, with the Nexus having a virtual SD card, I didn't know what would happen.
In essence, I'm thinking Titanium Backup is useless unless you pull the backup data from the phone before flashing a new ROM, because the backed up data would be deleted with a data wipe for new ROM flash.

cmcfalls said:
Will wiping the data (before ROM flash) also wipe the "SD Card" data? I know on other phones, that have a physical SD card, when you wipe data the SD data remains. But, with the Nexus having a virtual SD card, I didn't know what would happen.
In essence, I'm thinking Titanium Backup is useless unless you pull the backup data from the phone before flashing a new ROM, because the backed up data would be deleted with a data wipe for new ROM flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "sd card" data remains. Nothing is messed with in that portion of memory. TiBu works great.

strongergravity said:
The "sd card" data remains. Nothing is messed with in that portion of memory. TiBu works great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I wondered what would happen with a data wipe.

If you flash a stock ROM via fastboot it WILL WIPE THE "SDCARD". EVERYTHING.

Basically:
Stock recovery data wipe/factory reset = SDcard wiped
Custom recovery data wipe/factory reset = SDcard untouched
So if you haven't rooted/CWM'd your phone yet, don't put anything big and important on the SDcard. If you have put stuff on your card just make a backup of it on your PC and then do the unlock/recovery install procedure. Then you'll be set. Titanium Backup will be back to working just like it does on any other phone once you have a custom recovery installed. No worrying about the SDcard getting wiped.

you'll definitely want to install a custom recovery if you're going to be wiping anything. Id highly recommend the clockwork touch recovery. The standard one is really a pain to use as the navigation is odd and its hard to select what you want.

^ I wonder as well, but I proceed without thinking about sdcard. Lucky enough our great dev took care of that. Btw, I didn't have time to see the recovery since when I got it I flash CWM immediately.

The answer is here for TWRP
the answer

Kiwyxda said:
The answer is here for TWRP
the answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thread had been dead for 8 months...

[Q] Using factory restore and erasing sd card contents within a custom rom

I am curious what the results will be if I use the factory restore within a custom rom . I'm currently running AOKP M5.1 . I am wondering if there are any unsightly ramifications to booting into TWRP and doing a factory restore and erasing the SD card contents? I would like to do this to free up as much space as possible and remove the left over remnants of over 20 flashes and a plethora of app installs. One question I have is will TWRP wipe its own directories?
Would this be better from a stock perspective? The only time I wiped my SD card I was on stock and I really don't care to experience any directory malfunctions or card mounting issues. Doing this within a custom rom will my device still know its a kindle lol?
Edit: I know that this will not restore to 6.3.1 I'm just looking to run AOKP in a clean fresh environment including the SD card thanks for any input

Reserved

Thepooch said:
I am curious what the results will be if I use the factory restore within a custom rom . I'm currently running AOKP M5.1 . I am wondering if there are any unsightly ramifications to booting into TWRP and doing a factory restore and erasing the SD card contents? I would like to do this to free up as much space as possible and remove the left over remnants of over 20 flashes and a plethora of app installs. One question I have is will TWRP wipe its own directories?
Would this be better from a stock perspective? The only time I wiped my SD card I was on stock and I really don't care to experience any directory malfunctions or card mounting issues. Doing this within a custom rom will my device still know its a kindle lol?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cannot wipe recovery from inside recovery, only the TWRP backups on your sdcard will be lost. The sdcard is on its own partition apart from recovery and system files.

Backups are backed up on my pc also the only time I have used factory restore is when I was going to flash something new. The idea of this seems simple I just don't want it to be problematic since I won't be doing a new flash.

Thepooch said:
I am curious what the results will be if I use the factory restore within a custom rom . I'm currently running AOKP M5.1 . I am wondering if there are any unsightly ramifications to booting into TWRP and doing a factory restore and erasing the SD card contents? I would like to do this to free up as much space as possible and remove the left over remnants of over 20 flashes and a plethora of app installs. One question I have is will TWRP wipe its own directories?
Would this be better from a stock perspective? The only time I wiped my SD card I was on stock and I really don't care to experience any directory malfunctions or card mounting issues. Doing this within a custom rom will my device still know its a kindle lol?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory data reset from a ROM will wipe the /data partition. It's effectively the same as "Wipe -> Factory Reset" from TWRP.
On the other hand, if you do the equivalent from the stock software, it too will wipe the /data partition, but it will also take the SD Card contents along with it. I learned this the hard way.

kinfauns said:
Factory data reset from a ROM will wipe the /data partition. It's effectively the same as "Wipe -> Factory Reset" from TWRP.
On the other hand, if you do the equivalent from the stock software, it too will wipe the /data partition, but it will also take the SD Card contents along with it. I learned this the hard way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to flush the SD for a clean start music video and apps can all be restored before I stick both feet in I want to make sure that it just gives me the spring cleaning that I'm looking for

Well here's what I decided to do I figured since I had a working rom on I would do it all from the factory restore in the rom. So I clicked factory restore and erase SD card after rebooting it prompted me to set up my Google account. After it restored my account and all my apps downloaded and installed, I moved some files to my SD that I wanted back on and did a backup through twrp. All said and done I was very excited to see that I had 4 gigs of remaining space on my SD card so I managed to clear out 2 gigs of excess clutter from what I have done on my kindle. The only downside I have noticed so far is when hooking my kindle to my computer it shows G: removable disk . ADB drivers are good but its no longer listed as kindle under my computer which isn't the first time I've seen this.The way I figure no big deal adb works and I can access my SD card contents on my computer how its listed is irrelevant.
Drivers driver drivers windows sucks lol at this point they are functioning so I will not be trying to reinstall them. Later I will try another restore and wipe my SD through twrp to see if that changes probably won't make a difference I'm just gonna do it for kicks and giggles
On a device that only has 5 gigs of storage regaining 2 more gigs of play room is substantial. There was more clutter than what I anticipated I was only hoping for a half a gig and I'm certainly thrilled by 2

what exactly gets wiped when i wipe data?

Hello everyone,
after more then 2 years with my trusted N1 i finally had to move to a new phone because i broke the screen of my old one.
having the GN now for allmost a week, and within the first few hours of owning the device it got 3 OTA updates and is now at 4.1.1. i am quite happy with it but 2 days ago i startet messing around wiht it. so i ulocked the boodloader and rooted and got myself franco kernel on the GN.
as expected everything worked fine.
today i wantet to give some 3th party roms a try. i tried installing MIUI and euroskanks cm10. both with rom manager.
but on each of them i got in a bootloop after flashing, just showing the franco kernel boot animation.
i flashed both roms without wiping the data (just the cache)
i suspect that is my problem.
i am a little bit scared about the wipe data option for flashing new roms. on my N1 it worked fine since all my files on the sd card where not touched and i could get started allmost immediantly.
unlocking the bootloader of the GN wiped everything out off my phone and i had to copy it all back from a backup.
if i choose wipe data will that also (again) wipe my complete device or just the "OS part" and leave my data alone?
if it wipes everything how do i avoid having to make a backup of my data and restore it afterwards after each and every rom i flash?
i have noted the mnt/sdcard folder on my GN that (apparently) just links back to the root of the memory. what is the puropse of this folder? just to be compatible with "old" apps that insist on writing files to the SD-card or something else?
thanks for the info

no data from sdcard gets removed.
its basically a "NON REMOVABLE sdcard"... think of it that way.

patlabor said:
Hello everyone,
if i choose wipe data will that also(again) wipe my complete device or just the "OS part" and leave my data alone?
if it wipes everything how do i avoid having to make a backup of my data and restore it afterwards after each and every rom i flash?
i have noted the mnt/sdcard folder on my GN that (apparently) just links back to the root of the memory. what is the puropse of this folder? just to be compatible with "old" apps that insist on writing files to the SD-card or something else?
thanks for the info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. It will wipe your "OS part" + apps. Will leave data in "sdcard" alone. Factory Wipe clears the virtual "sdcard"
2. Can't be avoided, I use Wugfresh's toolkit to make app backups a breeze. Takes a little more time than it used to when I had my OG Droid with a EXT partition but hey, at least you'll always have a current backup of your apps.
3. Yes. It'd actually be less obvious it's still called /sdcard/ if you weren't rooted and poking around . I believe JB switches this to sdcard0 now to account for devices that have external sdcards to be mounted as /sdcard1 and so on.

Ok, I guess I get it.
Just one more thing to make sure.
It looks like all my files are in the root of my phone and mnt/sdcard has just one folder but with the same files as the folder with the same name in my root.
When I wipe data now will it keep everything or just the files in my mnt/sdcard folder?

patlabor said:
Ok, I guess I get it.
Just one more thing to make sure.
It looks like all my files are in the root of my phone and mnt/sdcard has just one folder but with the same files as the folder with the same name in my root.
When I wipe data now will it keep everything or just the files in my mnt/sdcard folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Custom recovery (AKA not CWM or TWRP or whatever you're using) will wipe your SD card. Just remember that.
All the custom recoveries wipe /data/ while keeping /data/media/ (your sd card).
Nothing on your "SDcard" will be lost.

I'm in the same situation as the original poster and would like a "definitive" answer. CWM has both a factory reset and a format /data option (in a separate submenu). Which preserve the content of the virtual sdcard ? Which is the raccomended way to try out a JB rom? I have 10+ Gb of data in the sdcard and i would like to avoid moving everything forth and back via MTP protocol...
Thanks
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

IF you are using CWM recovery, "wiping data" will erase the entire userdata partition EXCLUDING /sdcard. This means that everything under /data (except /data/media which = /sdcard) will be erased. This includes all apps you have installed in /data, and most data for those apps.
IF you are using a stock recovery, "wiping data" or "factory reset, will wipe the entire userdata partition, including /sdcard.
Wiping data or factory restore/reset/whatever does NOT touch the system partition or return the device to "factory condition". So if you have installed apps in /system or have root, the will still be there.

[Q] Wiping ALL data?

Galaxy s3 T999 tmobile phone.
Liquid Smooth ROM. - Amazing rom btw. I cant thank those folks enough for their brilliant work
TWRP for recovery
Ive done numerous dalvic/system/cache/data wipes through twrp in preparation for new roms. But my INTERNAL 16 gb SD card always shows that i have around 12GB USED. thats with no personal apps installed
Heres my question. How do i remove all unnecessary data thats hogging up space. I want a CLEAN space to work with!
I do have 4 twrp recovery files (4gb worth of data?) stored in there. Im assuming the system uses about 3 gb's. plus the gapps and liquid rom are only 194 mb combined. So that accounts for maybe 7 or 8 gb
So how do i do a totally clean wipe without losing twrp, recovery files AND root!
the only wipe option ive never used is USB-OTG. (USB On The Go?) No idea what it is or what it does. so i never messed with it. Ive read that it acts like a driver of some sort to allow usb devices to communicate with each other..
Ive also never gone into the Format data section of twrp out of fear that i might wipe the wrong things and render my phone useless
One article i read said that i might have to revert back to stock? im hoping thats not so. And do a factory wipe. Is that different from TWRP's functions? Im assuming that i would lose root.
they said din flash to stock
Odin master clear (or wipe SD from settings)
*2767*3855# on the phones keypad ...(i think codes in general only work on stock TW)
Do i have to format the sd card? would i lose important partitions that would delete the recovery system?
any ideas? i considered opening a partition wizard app to see the different partions on the internal sd card.

I'm no expert on this, but I think that Liquid Smooth has a place in Settings to let you view the space allocation of the storage in your phone and external SD card.
Go to Settings > Storage (or something similar) and take a look at how much space is being allocated of each of the different types of data. It might give you a better idea on what might be taking up that additional ~4GB of space.
If you can, provide us with a screenshot of the Storage screen. If not, you can just type them here so we can better understand what might be going on.

Back up internal sdcard to your computer.
Wipe data/factory reset.
Wipe /data/media.
You can do this through TWRP. Won't lose anything except contents of your internal sdcard. Which is why you back it up first.

Don't forget the formatting of the filesystem does this. Just like windows a 100gig hard drive formats to a smaller amount.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

completely wipe the phone?

Just wondering, as i'm probably selling my Galaxy S3 soon... what's the easiest way to completely wipe everything off the phone? Pictures, apps, documents.... everything? Will re-install a custom ROM after wiping.... just want to make sure all personal data is off the phone.

elementaldragon said:
Just wondering, as i'm probably selling my Galaxy S3 soon... what's the easiest way to completely wipe everything off the phone? Pictures, apps, documents.... everything? Will re-install a custom ROM after wiping.... just want to make sure all personal data is off the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I imagine using twrp would be the best way. Not sure if there is another alternative. Maybe odin.
First before wiping system you may want to wipe internal storage (after backing up your internal storage to your computer or something first of course). Then boot up your current system and transfer a rom you want to install to your internal storage. Then reboot to twrp and wipe system, factory reset, cache and dalvik. Then install a rom fresh and then it should be ready to go. This is what I do after selling a device, before shipping to a customer.

.... wouldn't copying a custom ROM to the internal storage BEFORE wiping System and everything also erase the custom ROM i just transferred to the device?
And i mean wiping EVERYTHING. basically as if the phone was just taken out of the box, and unlocked, rooted, and custom ROM installed. No left over files whatsoever. Don't think wiping just System does that, does it? Wouldn't i do the "Wipe Internal Storage" or something like that? Think that's about what i did on my Motorola Atrix when i sold that.

* edit looking into the wiping system part to see exactly what it erases.
Wiping system, factory reset, cache and dalvik should erase everything except storage. You could wipe internal storage after you freshly install a ROM. But hopefully there are no errors, because you will have no files on storage if something had went wrong during installation. I would also have a ROM file on an external sdcard that you could plug in if you needed to.
You will probably want to leave one ROM file on the device for the person you are selling it to, just incase.
Sent from my Nexus 5

stelv said:
* edit looking into the wiping system part to see exactly what it erases.
Wiping system, factory reset, cache and dalvik should erase everything except storage. You could wipe internal storage after you freshly install a ROM. But hopefully there are no errors, because you will have no files on storage if something had went wrong during installation. I would also have a ROM file on an external sdcard that you could plug in if you needed to.
You will probably want to leave one ROM file on the device for the person you are selling it to, just incase.
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I am selling it with the 8GB Micro-SD card anyway, since i've got no use for it with the Nexus 5. And i believe that's what i did with the Atrix. Wiped storage/system/factory reset/cache. Pretty much everything that made sense to wipe.... and just kept the ROM on the SD card out of the phone, just to make sure i didn't accidentally wipe that somehow.
And i'll probably just do what i usually end up doing for stuff like this. Wipe everything, install the ROM and make sure it boots, and just shut it off when it comes to the initial setup screen.

Here are some useful links
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1823906
http://teamw.in/whattowipe
Sent from my Nexus 5