Develop Bugs

[Q] ROM change question from a still apparent newbie...

I've been running stock rooted 3.29 deodexed.
Finally decided to try out Myns Warm 2.2 today. Did a Titanium backup and a nand backup, flashed the new ROM. I wasn't expecting all my widgets, apps and homescreen settings to remain intact. Obviously I was pleasantly surprised when they were.
Two questions:
1) Is this normal behavior for any ROM (e.g., CM6) or just because Warm2.2 is a Sense-based ROM? How did it even know all my homescreen settings? Did Titanium restore them without my asking? (Yes I know that's three questions in one, sorry)
2) Why were all my homescreen icons/widgets doubled up on top of eachother?
I know these are probably basic questions but just based on everything I've read I was expecting to have to install Ti backup, restore my apps, and then re-setup my homescreens. So this was just really surprising to me.

Just noticed that it also retained the flash that I applied for the 4-in-1 reboot mode (hot reboot, recovery, etc). Color me confused.

Shane112358 said:
I've been running stock rooted 3.29 deodexed.
Finally decided to try out Myns Warm 2.2 today. Did a Titanium backup and a nand backup, flashed the new ROM. I wasn't expecting all my widgets, apps and homescreen settings to remain intact. Obviously I was pleasantly surprised when they were.
Two questions:
1) Is this normal behavior for any ROM (e.g., CM6) or just because Warm2.2 is a Sense-based ROM? How did it even know all my homescreen settings? Did Titanium restore them without my asking? (Yes I know that's three questions in one, sorry)
2) Why were all my homescreen icons/widgets doubled up on top of eachother?
I know these are probably basic questions but just based on everything I've read I was expecting to have to install Ti backup, restore my apps, and then re-setup my homescreens. So this was just really surprising to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there...well, as a noob myself I have learned that when you flash any NEW ROMS from different developers, you MUST wipe DATA, CACHE & DAVLIK/CACHE 1st. If you are upgrading from Myn Warms 2.2 3.29 OTA to 3.30 then you usually don' have to unless they tell you to. That's why your icons/widges are doubled up. Can't go from Stock rooted ROM to Myns...different development.
It will wipe everything on your system and install the ROM brand new as if you bought your phone that way. Items in your SD card will remain there...it does not wipe that. The NAND backup is good if for some reason your EVO goes haywire you can just do the old fashion Bootloader and go into recovery and get everything back. (I actually do this once a week just incase I need to go back to a place when my EVO was perfect...I delete any old ones so that I don't get confused.)
Once you flash the new ROM then go into titanium back up and restore everything. I use Mybackup Pro (Free for 30days to try out)...it saves my home/android screen so That I don't have to reset everything I have except for login into my POP mail server. Not a fan of Titanium but a lot of people seems to like it.
You may need to restore your Evo to that NAND you just did, then WIPE...then flash Myns. Also Myns ROM has the 4-1 reboot. I hope this helps...

Well that explains the 4-in-1 but I did wipe my cache and dalvik cache twice before flashing Warm2.2. I was not on Warm2.2 so this was a change from stock to Warm2.2. So I still don't see how all my settings were retained.
I'm not looking for a "clean" install of Warm2.2 - I'm merely trying to understand why it happened this way when I thought that it wasn't supposed to, and if this behavior is normal.

And just out of curiosity why don't you like Ti backup? I've always wondered if it really serves any good purpose since it seems like Nand backups all my apps anyways....?

Shane112358 said:
Well that explains the 4-in-1 but I did wipe my cache and dalvik cache twice before flashing Warm2.2. I was not on Warm2.2 so this was a change from stock to Warm2.2. So I still don't see how all my settings were retained.
I'm not looking for a "clean" install of Warm2.2 - I'm merely trying to understand why it happened this way when I thought that it wasn't supposed to, and if this behavior is normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately you will need to do a clean install when you go from one ROM to another. Even if the other ROM is a rooted stock ROM...still someone's ROM they created with the stock OTA.
You have to wipe DATA too, no way around it....because the system is rooted and different developers change the path to what they want to do with their ROM you can't flash MYNS on top of someone else's rooted stock ROM. It will conflict with one another (hence the overlapping of icons/widgets). That's why they created apps like Titanium and Mybackup Pro because it will be like a clean phone you just bought and instead of taking hours to set up your phone again...do a restore from one of the programs and you will be up and running with the new ROM.
I love Myn's ROM...

Shane112358 said:
And just out of curiosity why don't you like Ti backup? I've always wondered if it really serves any good purpose since it seems like Nand backups all my apps anyways....?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way I view NAND backup is like a system restore on your PC. I don't use it unless I want to make sure there is a good location for me to go back to just in case my EVO acts up.
I tried titanium backup...visually it doesn't give me confidence as a noob...mybackup pro is very simple and does its purpose.

honeyBfly said:
Unfortunately you will need to do a clean install when you go from one ROM to another. Even if the other ROM is a rooted stock ROM...still someone's ROM they created with the stock OTA.
You have to wipe DATA too, no way around it....because the system is rooted and different developers change the path to what they want to do with their ROM you can't flash MYNS on top of someone else's rooted stock ROM. It will conflict with one another (hence the overlapping of icons/widgets). That's why they created apps like Titanium and Mybackup Pro because it will be like a clean phone you just bought and instead of taking hours to set up your phone again...do a restore from one of the programs and you will be up and running with the new ROM.
I love Myn's ROM...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I think I discovered your point. Myns ROM works flawlessly going from stock to Myns without a data wipe. But I just put on CM6 and had several FC and launcher problems. For some reason I never thought that wipe also meant data wipe...I was probably just trained by all the mod flashes I've been doing....

Shane112358 said:
Yeah I think I discovered your point. Myns ROM works flawlessly going from stock to Myns without a data wipe. But I just put on CM6 and had several FC and launcher problems. For some reason I never thought that wipe also meant data wipe...I was probably just trained by all the mod flashes I've been doing....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was always told to wipe everything when flashing one ROM to the next. But only wipe cache & Davlik/cache if your flash themes...Kernels or different MODS.

Two questions for you two since you both seem to know what you're doing
1. Did either of you use the special recovery images? (Clockwork/AmonRA)
2. I backup everything to Titanium Backup Pro...but if i wipe EVERYTHING that means Titanium Backup Pro will be gone as well...so how am I supposed to get everything restored if the app is gone?

1) Not sure, I use clockwork recovery but don't know what a special recovery image is.
2) My understanding is that you have to reinstall Ti backup, and whence forth it will find the old restore files that you can use to restore your apps.

Whenever installing a new rom it is best to do a FULL wipe meaning data,cache, and davlik. Even though there may not be any problems initially upon use, there will likely be some down the road. It's your phone though, do as you please.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

RTC88 said:
Whenever installing a new rom it is best to do a FULL wipe meaning data,cache, and davlik. Even though there may not be any problems initially upon use, there will likely be some down the road. It's your phone though, do as you please.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I did a full wipe last night and installed CM6. It installed just fine but my data didn't work....kept telling me that I didn't have a SIM installed. I could make phone calls though. I'll have to try again tonight but I did a restore so I had a functional phone today. Any idea why that happens?
Also I did a full backup with My Backup Pro so I'm assuming I can just reinstall My Backup Pro and it will find my backed-up data for restoration?

Could be a network problem on sprint's side.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

R1pTheJacka said:
Two questions for you two since you both seem to know what you're doing
1. Did either of you use the special recovery images? (Clockwork/AmonRA)
2. I backup everything to Titanium Backup Pro...but if i wipe EVERYTHING that means Titanium Backup Pro will be gone as well...so how am I supposed to get everything restored if the app is gone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes...AmonRA.
2. When you use an APP like Titanium and Mybackup Pro...it saves your backup to your SD card and a full wipe does not wipe external memory cards only internal system stuff. So once you wipe and flash a new ROM...you need to go to market first and foremost to download whichever backup program you used and then order it to restore your phone. It will know the path in which it used to back everything up and pull from there. Follow the prompts.

[Q] recovering data after custom rom?

quick question, is there anything wrong with going back into cwm after i flash say unofficial cm and flash my data back for apps n what not? or is this gonna be conflicting for some reason? im jus trying to figure out how you guys bounce thru roms so easily. thanks

wait for someone else to confirm this but i think as long as the backup is from the same type of ROM(sense or not) then you may be able to perform an advanced restore and get the data, but personally i have not needed to try this as the google restore feature seems to work fine, and i don't mind having to re-setup the options in my apps each time.
also you can always try not wiping the phone when you update, then your data is still there and you will only need to wipe if you get stuck in a boot loop or something is acting funny.
obviously you should still have a backup of your phone in working condition or else you could ens up seriously boned

The entire reason you're supposed to wipe the user data before flashing a different type of ROM is because the data is incompatible and it could cause crashes/freezes. So if you flash back the data after you're done, then you're defeating the purpose of wiping the user data, thus possibly making the ROM unstable again.

gotcha. thanks for the response.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

You should be able to use titanium backup to do this for all downloaded apps.

sundar2012 said:
You should be able to use titanium backup to do this for all downloaded apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Am I understanding this right? If I have everything setup the way I want it, apps dl'd and on whatever homescreen, settings set and so on and I use Titanium Backup, then flash a custom rom, say like CM 6.1, I can use Titanium Backup to put everything back layout wise the way I had it without having to redl apps and redo settings?

Nandroid Backup Question

So heres a noob question.
If I use (Rouge currently) to do a "backup" under options. And then start flashing ROMs, if I restore that backup I did, does that get me 100% back to the point of when I did the backup? Meaning, it restores -everything- like it never happened?
I've always wondered this, so if I'm flashing things, I can always get back to my fully stable setup exactly like it never happened by restoring? Or does the backup via Rouge( or CWM, or whatever ) only back certain things and I'll have to do more setup after restoring to get back up and running exactly like I had the phone before?
Sorry for the noob question, just want to make sure I got this straight.

It will restore everything 100%. You also have the option to restore other partitions separate, system, boot, and the most important , data.
Sent from a phone with kNOw CIQ ...

TeamERA said:
It will restore everything 100%. You also have the option to restore other partitions separate, system, boot, and the most important , data.
Sent from a phone with kNOw CIQ ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I assumed, thank you for the confirmation!

Here is a follow up question:
If I do a Titianium Backup for apps and sys data. Then I flash a new ROM, I usually do a Titanium restore of both Sys and App data ... It gets me up and running the quickest.
1.) Is this safe, or will sys data mess with the ROM
2.) Is there a better, more supportable way to do this?

RubenRybnik said:
Here is a follow up question:
If I do a Titianium Backup for apps and sys data. Then I flash a new ROM, I usually do a Titanium restore of both Sys and App data ... It gets me up and running the quickest.
1.) Is this safe, or will sys data mess with the ROM
2.) Is there a better, more supportable way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) It's always best NOT to restore system data when flashing a new rom. All your system data is specific to the rom you are flashing, so you don't want anything to conflict with the new data you are using now. Will cause a lot of problems in the long run.
2) TB is the best way to restore apps and apps+data that I know of. MyBackUp Pro is another good one, but TB works best for me. I'm sure there are others in the market also.
And I moved this to the Q&A section.

Well, this is what I thought too in fact I rooted my phone, installed CWM and the next step I performed was a nandroid backup thinking I could get my stock setup back if I ever wanted it. All was good. Then I flashed for a while and found a setup I liked and before proceeding I did another nandroid. THEN a while later I got to a point were I found myself, for time purposes wanting to fall back to my second backup so I thought: "hey, lets try restoring from this nandroid file I so maticulously spent time creating"!
That's when, for me at least, this whole nandroid Backup/Restore exercise falls on its face. Because when I tried to restore the backup I made it gave me a MD5 error..and I know there's a workaround that you can use by modifying the file I think that's basically what your doing? I didn't try it, I figured if the file needed to be modified before it could be restored what was the point anyway.? I just used my plan B which was Titanium Backup.
Anyway I keep my eyes open for an answer to this mystery, I think it has to do with the different CWM versions from one ROM to the next? Still not sure though?
Oh and hopefully this post wont just get rudely deleted like my first post on the same subject did? I made the same mistake you have by posting in the "General" area instead of the Q&A section!

the only time I have had a Android fail for md5 was when I changed the name of the backup. so maybe that's what you did?

RubenRybnik said:
So heres a noob question.
If I use (Rouge currently) to do a "backup" under options. And then start flashing ROMs, if I restore that backup I did, does that get me 100% back to the point of when I did the backup? Meaning, it restores -everything- like it never happened?
I've always wondered this, so if I'm flashing things, I can always get back to my fully stable setup exactly like it never happened by restoring? Or does the backup via Rouge( or CWM, or whatever ) only back certain things and I'll have to do more setup after restoring to get back up and running exactly like I had the phone before?
Sorry for the noob question, just want to make sure I got this straight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done many restores and everything comes back just like it was before.
---------- Post added at 12:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:28 PM ----------
RubenRybnik said:
Here is a follow up question:
If I do a Titianium Backup for apps and sys data. Then I flash a new ROM, I usually do a Titanium restore of both Sys and App data ... It gets me up and running the quickest.
1.) Is this safe, or will sys data mess with the ROM
2.) Is there a better, more supportable way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only use Titanium backup to backup and restore specific apps on my phone. I use CWM for the system.

patrao_n said:
the only time I have had a Android fail for md5 was when I changed the name of the backup. so maybe that's what you did?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope. I followed step by step...pretty hard to mess it up with qbking77 video's? Is there any other possible reason, you can think of?..and really, how many people test out thier restores? I'm just wondering?

Just one quick point of clarification regarding the Nandroid backup/restore. From what I've read, the restore will bring back your kernel and ROM but NOT the modem version. If the modem is important to you you'll have to flash that back separately.

Magicspell said:
Just one quick point of clarification regarding the Nandroid backup/restore. From what I've read, the restore will bring back your kernel and ROM but NOT the modem version. If the modem is important to you you'll have to flash that back separately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point ... Thanks to everyone for the replies, got a much better understanding on the backup/restore process in both cwm and titanium now ) Thanks!
One more question about the MD5 ... So you can not change the name of the backup of CWM? I didn't think name change would effect how MD5 is generated.

RubenRybnik said:
Here is a follow up question:
If I do a Titianium Backup for apps and sys data. Then I flash a new ROM, I usually do a Titanium restore of both Sys and App data ... It gets me up and running the quickest.
1.) Is this safe, or will sys data mess with the ROM
2.) Is there a better, more supportable way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also use your latest nandroid back up to restore data. I just tried this as a test with my wife's phone (i also did a separate back up in TB just in case) and it works well.
She was on one of Calks ROMs, and I wanted to switch her to the bare version of the ROM. I wiped data/cache/dalvik, installed the bare rom and rebooted. Once booted, I verified everything was gone (apps, contacts, sms, settings, ect). Then I went back to CWM and went to back up and restore->advanced restore-> restore data. When I booted back up, all her apps, contacts, sms, settings were back. I guess this would be a quick and dirty way to restore your stuff when jumping between a lot of ROMS.

s9amme said:
You can also use your latest nandroid back up to restore data. I just tried this as a test with my wife's phone (i also did a separate back up in TB just in case) and it works well.
She was on one of Calks ROMs, and I wanted to switch her to the bare version of the ROM. I wiped data/cache/dalvik, installed the bare rom and rebooted. Once booted, I verified everything was gone (apps, contacts, sms, settings, ect). Then I went back to CWM and went to back up and restore->advanced restore-> restore data. When I booted back up, all her apps, contacts, sms, settings were back. I guess this would be a quick and dirty way to restore your stuff when jumping between a lot of ROMS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So just to be clear ... "Restore Data" in CWM is just Apps and Apps data, no system data is restored correct?

RubenRybnik said:
So just to be clear ... "Restore Data" in CWM is just Apps and Apps data, no system data is restored correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes on apps and data.

[Q] Best way to quickly switch between ROMs?

What is the best procedure for switching between ROMs and still retain all of your data (contacts, call history, txt history, app data, etc)?
I have Titanium Backup Pro, which I assume would be best to use.

WhiteZero said:
What is the best procedure for switching between ROMs and still retain all of your data (contacts, app data, etc)?
I have Titanium Backup Pro, which I assume would be best to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Contacts are synced with your Google account. Assuming its from one android version to the same you can usually do a batch backup of your data apps in titanium or create a filter for apps you specifically want to backup and restore on each rom and use that.

barnacles10 said:
Contacts are synced with your Google account. Assuming its from one android version to the same you can usually do a batch backup of your data apps in titanium or create a filter for apps you specifically want to backup and restore on each rom and use that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about going from GB to ICS?

WhiteZero said:
What about going from GB to ICS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Going upward would be easy.
For your first question - the easiest way to moving around different Roms.
Rule of Thumb (to keep the data)
1. Don't do the factory reset.
2. Don't format the data
What you can do -
Format cache/dalvik.
In here, let me just focus on the moving the roms between the same version (stay on same GB or ICS, or moving upward). Downgrading Roms from ICS to GB is little different story and need lots of cautions because it could break your phone.
The easiest way would be using sfhub's No-data version one click odin. If you use this method, you can keep almost everything after the rom changed and the efforts to recover the original configuration would the minimum. You need to verify the each applications whether it works or not. Based on my experience, some few applications does not work after the rom change. If the app does not work, you can try to restore the app using TB. Sometimes TB works in here but other times it's not. But it's a good habit to make the whole system + app data backup thru TB. Many times for the apps not working after the rom change, you need to uninstall and reinstall it. It resolves the issue always.
The second easiest way would be using Calk's zip file. Sometime his rom comes with no-data version but the other times, it's not. So, try no-data version first if it's there. But if not, just use normal version without wiping anything (don't do the factory reset manually). His package will automatically format the system data, cache, dalvik, battery stat but user app & data. So, after applying his non no-data version rom, you need a little more effort. For example, if you are using different launcher, the system will move back to default tw launcher. So, you need to clean the tw launcher's data and make your launcher as default. The good thing is, your launcher configuration data is still there. Again, after changing the rom, some application may not work on the new rom. In that case, just follow the steps that I mentioned above.
For any other roms, it would be little more complicated because depending on the rom, it's totally customized. So, you need to follow the op's instruction carefully. For example, I had some problems on moving around the roms because I installed the Rom having some inverted apps (which is replacing the default system and user apps). If you try to install stock rom over those kind of roms, then there are high chances that overlapped apps are not going to work on the new rom. In that case, you need to find out the stock apps instead of inverted apps to uninstall the current app and reinstall the stock app.

Does Backup/Restore through TWRP Backup/Restore your apps?

Quite simple. I don't know what Backup/Restore through TWRP actually does, if it backs up the whole phone or if it just backs up your apps, or if you can have it do either.
My Note 4 is rooted and I really hate changing ROMs just because I end up having to re-install my apps. It's a PITA.
Is there really an easier, quicker way of doing things when I switch ROMs? Can I backup/restore my apps with TWRP? If not, then what about with Titanium Backup Pro? I have that as well. I've been manually restoring my apps each time I change ROMs.

TWRP makes copies of the entirety of the selected backup partitions (Whole Phone), using Titanium backup onto your SD card would probably be the best option for backing up apps.

The correct way is you should do both. You only need to do twrp backup once to have a full image of your phone. This is very helpful if your new rom crashed. You just need to restore the twrp image and you will have your phone back exactly the same setup before the crash. Second, you also need a full backup of all your apps with Titanium Backup, this helps you to restore all the apps back to the new rom. Make a note here, if you flash a new OS version, like 5.1 lollipop to 6.0 MM, do not restore app data, instead, just restore the apps only. Apps force closed if you restore app data.
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

flashable zips
JOSHSKORN said:
Quite simple. I don't know what Backup/Restore through TWRP actually does, if it backs up the whole phone or if it just backs up your apps, or if you can have it do either.
My Note 4 is rooted and I really hate changing ROMs just because I end up having to re-install my apps. It's a PITA.
Is there really an easier, quicker way of doing things when I switch ROMs? Can I backup/restore my apps with TWRP? If not, then what about with Titanium Backup Pro? I have that as well. I've been manually restoring my apps each time I change ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium backup has a setting that allows you to make TWRP flashable zips . It allows you to do the operation as a batch as well so you could make a single zip with all the apps you want restore or you could do them individually or in specific groups. Since your rom selection is based upon system Img. This should work unless you went from a Touchwiz to Aosp base.