Develop Bugs

Backup and Restore

I read alot about wiping data in CWM3 and was wondering what that wipes and is it good to do periodically since it seems to be part of repair procedures. What gets wiped. Also what is the difference in backing up in CWM3 and My Backup Pro.
Thanks for helping us noob's learn.

When you wipe data/factory reset. You're clearing ALL the setup that had been done on the phone. So the next boot; it will act like it did when it was first taken out of the box.
Starting the tutorial and prompting to login or create a google account.
recovery backup is like an image of your phone; it is always best to use this when trying a theme or anything that could cause your phone to not boot. You can always go back into recovery and put your phone back into the state it was prior to the change (kind of like a restore point in windows)
the backup programs really just do apps their data and some system data but could not help you if a theme or kernel causes your phone to stop booting to android. This is more like copying files to a folder in windows and then copying them back when needed.
Either backups are good to have as they serve different purposes. ALWAYS backup your phone. It can save you much headaches later.
Hope that helped.

Can we format the whole HardDrive and Start from scratch?

In Windows, we can format the whole hard drive and install a new fresh system. Can we do the same to our Samsung Galaxy S3 - fully format the HD clean and install ROM back?
I test out many JB ROMs, Kernels, & apps - now my phone is full of mess. My phone starts to have many problems, force closes and freezes.
My T-mo S3's IMEI was loss (w/o any backup) - so I injected IMEI back but the data kept trapped in EDGE and suffered constant low signal.
How can I restore my phone to the original condition without any previous traces or residual file?
Greatly appreciate for your help in advance.

Yes u can just use the Super wipe. To find it look into exquizt rom there is a dl for it. But make surebthat u back up everything u need or it will b all gone
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

I come across his thread on SuperWipe - erase everything in Nand - sound intense: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1704758
What do I have to install if everything in NAND is gone? Kernel, ROM, Radio Modem... what else if crucial for reinstalling?
Thanks

Uhm, prolly flash a completely bloated stock firmware via ODIN.

What option do I have beside getting myself a bloated stock firmware? Can I just flash a JB AOKP & Modem? What else am I missing for a phone to properly function?
Thanks

Not sure if that super wipe is compatible with our phones, though. I'd format system/data/cache and wipe sdcard (internal) and just flash something else before I'd try something that hasn't been tested on our devices.

Thanks theexel. My phone has so many useless files all over the place - I want to do some house cleaning and get a fresh start. I have been doing "format system/data/cache and wipe sdcard (internal)" every time I flash. Just want to get back to once it was - everything is clean & well structured.

superlex said:
In Windows, we can format the whole hard drive and install a new fresh system. Can we do the same to our Samsung Galaxy S3 - fully format the HD clean and install ROM back?
I test out many JB ROMs, Kernels, & apps - now my phone is full of mess. My phone starts to have many problems, force closes and freezes.
My T-mo S3's IMEI was loss (w/o any backup) - so I injected IMEI back but the data kept trapped in EDGE and suffered constant low signal.
How can I restore my phone to the original condition without any previous traces or residual file?
Greatly appreciate for your help in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't really compare a windows partition to an android ROM. Windows stores everything, data, system files, etc on the same partition. Not only that, but when a Windows program installs itself, it copies files to system directories throughout the drive and to the registry.
When you uninstall a Windows program, it's very possible that not all of those files and registry entries are deleted, which is why the drive gets cluttered and needs "spring cleaning" every once in a while.
Android works differently. It has separate partitions for System files and Data files. If you don't manually mess with anything in the /system partition, then it should still be the same as what came with whatever ROM you most recently installed. Any apps or data on your phone is stored in the /data partition only.
If you think your phone needs to be started over from scratch, then the best thing to do is delete the /system partition and the /data partition and reinstall whatever ROM you want to use. The Kernel will automatically be erased and reinstalled whenever you install a new ROM. Anything beyond /system and /data is overkill because all the other stuff gets erased automatically anyway when you install a new ROM.
Good luck.

[Q] N7100 adb backup problems, and potential alternatives without rooting?

Yes, I'm a noob. No, I can't keep things brief. I'm sorry video, I just can't do it. Hello XDA. Here's my pickle:
So, my camera's faulty, and I'm going to have to send my Note II back to Kogan. This is my first Android handset, and my first time properly experiencing and using Android (I moved here from a Blackberry Pearl 9100). I don't consider myself a base-line user, I'm competent with many forms of electronics and computing so I quickly settled into Android nicely. Thus far I've rooted, flashed recovery and flashed CyanogenMod 9 for one Android phone (I was the first in my family to make the switch, my sister got a Galaxy Wonder for Christmas and I flashed CM9 so she could have at least ICS for her phone) and it was a fairly straight-forward process, nothing too difficult (although it seems my father's Motorola Defy+ might be a bit trickier).
I'll get to the point, due to the camera being basically dead on arrival, I've got to send it back. I don't want to send it back with all of my personal information intact however, I'd prefer to take a full backup of it and then factory reset the device before sending it away. This is where the warranty clause comes in.
I can't root the device (this action breaks warranty) and therefore can't flash CWM to do a nandroid backup. After some reading, a nandroid sounded like the ideal solution but obviously I can't do that. See, I wanted to backup all of my data, including (if possible) apps, settings, accounts, the works. I really don't want to have to go through the process of re-downloading all of my apps (my internet connection isn't the quickest around) and setting everything up just the way I want it again.
I stumbled across the adb backup technique, and considering the N7100 shipped with Jellybean 4.1 and adb backup requires ICS 4.0+, I thought "Hey, why not. It seems pretty straight forward." I also figured it'd be a small learning experience, I'm thinking about getting into android app development sometime in the near future and needed the SDK anyway so I downloaded and installed that, fired up adb and ran the backup with the following parameters:
Code:
adb backup -f <FILE PATH> -apk -shared -all -nosystem
And it seemed to get stuck on the apk for GTA Vice City. So, after about an hour of sitting, I pulled the plug and tried again. This time it got to Angry Birds and got stuck once more. I decided to run it again, but with a different set of parameters, I thought "Maybe it's getting stuck with the SD card data."
Code:
adb backup -f <FILE PATH> -apk -all -noshared -nosystem
This time it got stuck on Bad Piggies. I pulled the plug once more and started searching for answers, but there's not a huge amount of discussion about the backup function, let alone specific to the Note II. I read some stuff about the One X getting stuck on certain parts, but they certainly weren't games like this.
And that's the thing that links them all, they're games. I'm not sure if that specifically has any effect on the process, but I'm beginning to think that trying to back up EVERYTHING so that I can restore my device to the same state it is in now is a futile effort. Without the ease of a nandroid 'snapshot', I'm running out of ideas. I could go through and delete every game I've installed and try the backup again, but I'd like to see if anyone else has any alternatives or explanations.
Here are my queries, don't feel like you've got to answer them all, they're just the questions I've got in my head right now.
1. Is there any known reason as to why adb backup gets stuck on these apks?
2. Is there a better way of creating some form of 'snapshot' of my device without rooting it?
3. Would Samsung Kies' backup utility keep my app and system settings after a factory reset (in that it'd load up Nova Launcher with all of it's settings, along with the few widgets I have, intact)?
4. Are there any apps that would do this? I've heard Titanium Backup will, but you need to be rooted to use that.
I'm starting to feel that just doing it the manual way is going to be easier in the long run.
With question three, I'm assuming that Kies won't backup any apks, and therefore when my phone is sent back to me I'll have to set it up again, download my required/desired apps and then restore my settings through Kies (which will hopefully also restore settings for apps like Nova Launcher, and even better, for widget applications like HD widgets). However, if I'm wrong and Kies DOES backup apks, I'll just do that, it's so much less screwing around and it does what I wanted it to do but didn't think it did in the first place.
Thanks XDA,
-svdkillswitch
(Also, first post!)
Other information:
Device: GT-N7100 (international)
Carrier: Unlocked, Telstra
Android version: 4.1.1, 'Jelly Bean'
Baseband version: N7100UBALJ1
Build number: JRO03C.N7100UBALJ1
Rooted: No

Easiest way
Root with exynos abuse exploit (method 3 in link)and install titanium backup and backup all data using it. I recommend to save backup folder in Ext SD card.
After finishing this you can unroot from application itself.

dr.ketan said:
Easiest way
Root with exynos abuse exploit (method 3 in link)and install titanium backup and backup all data using it. I recommend to save backup folder in Ext SD card.
After finishing this you can unroot from application itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help,
You say in the linked post that while it doesn't trigger the flash counter, it can cause problems with the camera. If I'm just temp-rooting, backing it up with Titanium, and then un-rooting it again, none of these effects will remain I assume. I guess it doesn't matter too much anyway actually, because my camera is the reason I'm sending it back in.
And once I get my device back, it's as simple as installing the apk, rooting the device, installing Titanium and restoring my backup from the ext SD.
Sounds good. I'll give it a whirl and let you know how I go. +1'd.
-svdkillswitch

It cause camera issue only if you disable exploit, here you need not to do anything rather thn just root.
-Install that apk file, get device rooted.(there is option to root device in application), you need not to check disable exploit
-Install titanium Pro from market and backup (first select backup location to Ext sd card)
- Once finish, uninstall titanium and unroot device from exynose app
You can also factory reset and send to service centre.

dr.ketan said:
It cause camera issue only if you disable exploit, here you need not to do anything rather thn just root.
-Install that apk file, get device rooted.(there is option to root device in application), you need not to check disable exploit
-Install titanium Pro from market and backup (first select backup location to Ext sd card)
- Once finish, uninstall titanium and unroot device from exynose app
You can also factory reset and send to service centre.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's all I did. Rooted, installed Titanium and backed-up my data to the external SD card. I've un-rooted the device, all I need to do now is factory reset.
Thanks for your help, much appreciated.
-svdkillswitch

but adb doesnt work

Dump full userdata partition (even deleted files) - Locked bootloader, Marshmallow

Hello,
I have a friend that accidentally deleted her photos on her LG G4. I don't have a physical access to the phones (she lives far away), but I know this is a H815 on stock Marshmallow, locked bootloader.
While I have some experience in this kind of things, each phone has its particularities... I could:
use DiskDigger, but this requires root access, or
dump the userdata partition (with commands such as dd, cat...), but again, it requires root access.
I'm thinking about rooting the phone while minimizing writing to the userdata, in order to have a minimum loss of deleted pictures.
So I read a few topics on XDA about the LG G4. I saw it's possible to make a full backup in download mode. It it was possible to dump each byte of the partition so I could look for removed pictures, it would be awesome and my probleme would be solved! Or is it only a backup tool (that reads only existing files)? Can someone tell me about this tool?
Another way would be unlocking the bootloader in order to gain root access (for instance via a custom recovery), but it will involve a data wipe I'm afraid I could not recover anything from, if it's a low-level wipe.
I would appreciate any hint
Thanks!

a-m13 said:
Hello,
I have a friend that accidentally deleted her photos on her LG G4. I don't have a physical access to the phones (she lives far away), but I know this is a H815 on stock Marshmallow, locked bootloader.
While I have some experience in this kind of things, each phone has its particularities... I could:
use DiskDigger, but this requires root access, or
dump the userdata partition (with commands such as dd, cat...), but again, it requires root access.
I'm thinking about rooting the phone while minimizing writing to the userdata, in order to have a minimum loss of deleted pictures.
So I read a few topics on XDA about the LG G4. I saw it's possible to make a full backup in download mode. It it was possible to dump each byte of the partition so I could look for removed pictures, it would be awesome and my probleme would be solved! Or is it only a backup tool (that reads only existing files)? Can someone tell me about this tool?
Another way would be unlocking the bootloader in order to gain root access (for instance via a custom recovery), but it will involve a data wipe I'm afraid I could not recover anything from, if it's a low-level wipe.
I would appreciate any hint
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No root required just check my signature for the DLM backup method
Ensure that you are using the full back-up which also takes care of user data partition
Sent from my LG-H815 using XDA Labs

Data recovery

Hi, yesterday phone admin made factory reset by remote control and now phone is empty. There was a lot of photos and info in it. Is there any chances to recover data or at least some photos? And how to do it?
Android 10
Last time I was doing something similar - Samsung S4

acerive said:
Hi, yesterday phone admin made factory reset by remote control and now phone is empty. There was a lot of photos and info in it. Is there any chances to recover data or at least some photos? And how to do it?
Android 10
Last time I was doing something similar - Samsung S4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have created a backup before, you can restore from there.
I assume that you do not have s backup.
On some devices, there is a kind of trash/paper bin, in which you can find deleted files.
If not on your device, you can connect your device to a PC (via USB cable), and check with a recovery tool if it can detect deleted files to be restored on the internal storage of your phone.
You should really create a backup of all your files regularly, when you're phone admin is performing a remote factory reset from time to time. Or insert an external sd card/USB storage to copy your files in a place that is not affected by a factory reset.

Usually on a PC hard drive you can run a data recovery software to try and get things back. I believe with phones its a bit different. Once you factory reset it sets every bit on the phones memory to a 1, so its impossible to get everything back.
I could be talking out my arse however.