[Q] Encryption and Nandroid Backup/Restore - One (M8) Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey guys,
If I encrypt my M8, then do a full Nandroid backup to the SDcard, can this backup be restored to any device or is it device-specific?
Also, am I right in assuming that a backup of an encrypted handset can even be restored? If so, how is unencryption performed after the restore?
Just want to clarify as I'm unsure of 'best practice' when making a full backup.
I'd prefer to make encrypted backups and then store the SDcard safely, but if an encrypted backup is in fact device-specific, it almost seems counterproductive.

Anyone?
Just want to know an encrypted phone can be backed up and then restored before actually encrypting my M8!

I don't think you can make a backup if you encrypt your phone. Or even flash any files from recovery. The data will be encrypted and CWM can't access them AFAIK..at least not the HTC encryption.
And backups are not tied to the device as such.
You could make a nand backup with a tool that makes backups while you're booted into Android. Such as Online Nandroid Backup.

Thank you :good:
As mentioned in the initial post I'm using Nandroid Online Backup, so I kind of assumed that as the phone is effectively 'decrypted' whilst I'm booted into the Android, the Nandroid backup would be fully restorable.
But even if that is indeed the case, would the actual backup on the SDCard itself be encrypted data .. or unencrypted due to the decryption which is performed once booted into Android?
My ideal scenario is to have an encrypted M8 + an encrypted SDCard backup. But I assume there would be no way to restore an encrypted SDCard backup .. other than to the original handset/Device ID on which it was first created.
Unless I'm missing something?

westeight said:
Thank you :good:
As mentioned in the initial post I'm using Nandroid Online Backup, so I kind of assumed that as the phone is effectively 'decrypted' whilst I'm booted into the Android, the Nandroid backup would be fully restorable.
But even if that is indeed the case, would the actual backup on the SDCard itself be encrypted data .. or unencrypted due to the decryption which is performed once booted into Android?
My ideal scenario is to have an encrypted M8 + an encrypted SDCard backup. But I assume there would be no way to restore an encrypted SDCard backup .. other than to the original handset/Device ID on which it was first created.
Unless I'm missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The backup would be unencrypted if you save it to the SD card. Unless you encrypt the SD card also, which is done separately. Not sure how that would work out though..never tried it You might wanna check the support for the Online Nandroid tool for that info.
As for the restoring backup to devices, since the backup is unencrypted and it's not tied to any device, it would be possible to restore it to other phones or just simply unpack it.

Thanks WarCow :good:
I guess the safest thing is to encrypt, reboot/decrypt, then backup and then bury my SDCard somewhere safe!

westeight said:
Thanks WarCow :good:
I guess the safest thing is to encrypt, reboot/decrypt, then backup and then bury my SDCard somewhere safe!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except that decryption will require factory resetting your phone It's such a hassle. Also keep in mind that encryption will slow the phone down a bit compared to being unencrypted.

WarCow said:
Except that decryption will require factory resetting your phone It's such a hassle. Also keep in mind that encryption will slow the phone down a bit compared to being unencrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have noticed the difference: my personal phone is unencrypted and my work phone is encrypted. Both are M8s and there is a noticeable bootup lag. Performance wise, the difference is minimal and therefore tolerable.
But sadly I don't have a choice with the work phone.
Really just wanted to make sure that any encrypted device can be backup and subsequently restored. Now I'm confident it can, I have no trouble with resetting.
I can upgrade AndroidHD from 10.1 to 10.2 while I'm at it! :victory:

Related

[Q] How to Root/use Recovery on a fully encrypted International Note 2 LTE?

Hi all,
I recently got a HK N7105 and because it lacked the possibility to use a french keyboard I upgraded to a stock unbranded ROM from Sweden (XXDLL1) and succesfully rooted with the relevant CF_autoroot through Odin. Also installed TWRP 2.3.3.1.
Then, I connected the Note 2 to my corporate exchange server which enforced a full encryption policy (device and external SD card) so I had to type in a password at each boot time (with a "nice" swedish prompt that took ma while to decypher), plus a password to unlock the screen. All was well as the root survived the process.
Next I upgraded to a later stock ROM from France (XXDLL4 from SFR) to try and get rid of the swedish prompt. That worked fine (and root was loast in the process, as expected) but I hated the branded stuff so much I reverted to XXDLL1 until a proper unbranded "english" or "french" ROM is available.
At this point I decided to root again. I was running XXDLL1 like the first time and used the same autoroot tar from Chainfire. Except my Note 2 was still encrypted and after that it would not accept my boot password (a four digit PIN) anymore so I was guted and had to factory reset and root then reinstall everything before reconnecting to the exchange server.
Question 1: Does anyone know of a safe, proven way to root a fully encrypted Samsung device so I can go another upgrade without having to wipe the device first?
Why reinstall everything? Why not backup everything first so you can restore after the wipe? Well, it so happens that no recovery (at least neither CWM or TWRP) can read any encrypted media on the Note 2 at the moment. And no Recovery can actually fully backup the device as well.
Question 2: Does anyone know of a proper way to handle this situation with minimum hassle?
So far, the best I can think of is doing a Titanium backup and FTP the files to my NAS so I can retrieve them later. But (Question 3) will this be enough to restore my phone to the expected state after a stock firmware upgrade?
Thanks in advance,
François
frankieGom said:
Hi all,
I recently got a HK N7105 and because it lacked the possibility to use a french keyboard I upgraded to a stock unbranded ROM from Sweden (XXDLL1) and succesfully rooted with the relevant CF_autoroot through Odin. Also installed TWRP 2.3.3.1.
Then, I connected the Note 2 to my corporate exchange server which enforced a full encryption policy (device and external SD card) so I had to type in a password at each boot time (with a "nice" swedish prompt that took ma while to decypher), plus a password to unlock the screen. All was well as the root survived the process.
Next I upgraded to a later stock ROM from France (XXDLL4 from SFR) to try and get rid of the swedish prompt. That worked fine (and root was loast in the process, as expected) but I hated the branded stuff so much I reverted to XXDLL1 until a proper unbranded "english" or "french" ROM is available.
At this point I decided to root again. I was running XXDLL1 like the first time and used the same autoroot tar from Chainfire. Except my Note 2 was still encrypted and after that it would not accept my boot password (a four digit PIN) anymore so I was guted and had to factory reset and root then reinstall everything before reconnecting to the exchange server.
Question 1: Does anyone know of a safe, proven way to root a fully encrypted Samsung device so I can go another upgrade without having to wipe the device first?
Why reinstall everything? Why not backup everything first so you can restore after the wipe? Well, it so happens that no recovery (at least neither CWM or TWRP) can read any encrypted media on the Note 2 at the moment. And no Recovery can actually fully backup the device as well.
Question 2: Does anyone know of a proper way to handle this situation with minimum hassle?
So far, the best I can think of is doing a Titanium backup and FTP the files to my NAS so I can retrieve them later. But (Question 3) will this be enough to restore my phone to the expected state after a stock firmware upgrade?
Thanks in advance,
François
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think using Exynos Abuse apk will do the work
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2050297
Thanks for the heads up, I'll look into it. But to be clear, that answers question 1, correct?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
frankieGom said:
Thanks for the heads up, I'll look into it. But to be clear, that answers question 1, correct?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's a way to root the device.
Regarding encryption, very few people on xda seem to use it. So for that reason you'll have trouble finding out what works... I do use it though through choice so I can help you a bit.
When you encrypt the device, just consider /data to be off limits to anything not booted fully. That's why it asks you for your key in swedish - it can't see what language is in use until you unlock /data.
You will have issues using recovery with the device, since they can't read /data. You can use an external sd to perhaps load data to the device though.
I believe that TWRP might soon support the Samsung encryption on the device, meaning you could use it as recovery. Once you have a recovery that supports Samsung encryption, you should be able to consider it a fairly normal device.
Just be more cautious to backup your data as it is hard to recover if something goes wrong...
If your using stock rom 4.1.2, exynos abuse method of root will not work. It's been patched
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
pulser_g2 said:
Yes that's a way to root the device.
Regarding encryption, very few people on xda seem to use it. So for that reason you'll have trouble finding out what works... I do use it though through choice so I can help you a bit.
When you encrypt the device, just consider /data to be off limits to anything not booted fully. That's why it asks you for your key in swedish - it can't see what language is in use until you unlock /data.
You will have issues using recovery with the device, since they can't read /data. You can use an external sd to perhaps load data to the device though.
I believe that TWRP might soon support the Samsung encryption on the device, meaning you could use it as recovery. Once you have a recovery that supports Samsung encryption, you should be able to consider it a fairly normal device.
Just be more cautious to backup your data as it is hard to recover if something goes wrong...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fine, I understand. As long as I have a way to recover my data if I need to wipe I'm okay... I just have to hope Titanium backup gives me that until TWRP can manage encruption on the Note 2.
I'm really waiting for a stock rom that boots in English or French now.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
vash_h said:
If your using stock rom 4.1.2, exynos abuse method of root will not work. It's been patched
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not the case with xxdll1. When was it patched, xxdll4 or xxdll7?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
frankieGom said:
Not the case with xxdll1. When was it patched, xxdll4 or xxdll7?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on Stock 4.1.2 and Exynos Abuse did work on my device, it's successfully rooted using the Exynos AbuseAPK on 4.1.2 :good:
OK, now I have been experimenting a bit with backups and upgrade and have trouble restoring my device fully. Let me explain...
I got hold of a TWRP build that seems to handle Samsung encryption fine through one of the TWRP devs (thanks!), so I decided to go back and try to update my device.
Current ROM: N7105XXDLL1_N7105TLADLL1_N7105XXDLK7_HOME.tar (obtained from Samsung Updates)
New ROM: N7105XXDLL7_N7105OLBDLL2_N7105DXDLL1_HOME.tar (obtained from Samsung Updates)
First I performed a complete Titanium Backup on the device and pulled the files to my laptop using ADB.
Then I restarted into TWRP 2.4.0.0 (got a prompt for my password), performed a full backup and pulled the files to the laptop using ADB.
(for some reason, I could not install the new ROM from TWRP (unable to open ZIP), but the ZIP looked OK, as well as after a second download which TWRP since did not like, so I had to use Odin instead).
Next, I flashed DLL7 with Odin. It worked, asked for the password at boot, but the device was unrooted at this point (I expected that).
Then, I flashed CF-Auto-Root-t0lte-t0ltexx-gtn7105.tar from Odin, but the boot up password would not be accepted anymore as I already knew.
Tried to flash DLL7 again from Odin, same thing
Flashed TWRP back on recovery partition, but on startup it would not ask for password anymore and the external sdcard looked empty to it.
I then copied my backup to a different, non encrypted sdcard and could restore from TWRP but the password would still not work after reboot.
I did a factory reset, restored backup, same result.
At this point I decided to factory reset, wipe Dalvik and format /data. The format did the trick and after TWRP restore of my original back up the device booted up, did not ask for password and all my data was there. Except the Exchange account I use for Corporate email wants me to restore encryption in order to work (I expected that too).
Back at DLL1, so I flashed DLL7 again with Odin (OK), rooted the phone, triangled away the flash counter and reflashed TWRP to recovery.
I was where I wanted to be except for one thing: I need to restore Corporate access. But when I let it encryp the phone it does nothing. I let it through the night and nothing). And if I reboot the phone no password is needed at boot time, yet the phone seems to behave as if it thought the device was still encrypted...
I reflashed my original, full, backup (i.e DLL1) succesfully but Exchange still wants to encrypt my device. Isn't restore supposed to restore the encrypted /data I backed up?
At this point I'm left with possibly tryinjg to go back to full factory settings, not use the backup at all, encrypt the device then restore my data from the Titanium backup I made.
Is there a better option?
[edited jan 18 - TWRP/TB behaviour]
My comments apply to encrypted devices only! I am not trying to talk down TWRP or TB here, as they provide splendid performance on non encrypted devices. I have come upon hard time trying to upgrade/restore an encrypted device using thoise tools, that's all
For those considering upgrading & re-rooting encrypted devices, don't!
I am finding the hard way that this is a one way street. At this point, my TWRP made full backup does not restore the device to the expected status. Each time I apply it, subsequent bootup takes several minutes and I end up going through the initial setup procedure. It seems the device for some reasoin goes through a complete reset procedure.
[edit]
Clarification: The TWRP build I use, 2.4.0.0 is an alpha build and I was not current when I restored my backup. I so happens that it was overwriting the encryption header on the partition, which messed things up bad, and had issues writing back the data partition, ending up in a factory reset status!
Using the latest drop as of today (jan 27) I was able to restore my original backup and am now back to my original state. All is well.
[/edit]
Titanium Backup is none better. It keeps telling me that my Android ID has changed, a host of system applications start to fail when I try to restore and generally speaking I have now spent between a good 20 hours trying to simply restore my data.
[edit]
this behaviour is probably linked to encryption. I know for a fact that TB works very well on non encrypted phones. The 20h figure is overall, not just with TB.
[/edit]
The end story is: root before you encrypt, and either don't upgrade or don't re-root if you do! If you do, be prepared for some rough times...
Unless someone has a cleat idea of how to do this properly without losing all your data, that is.
François
frankieGom said:
For those considering upgrading & re-rooting encrypted devices, don't!
I am finding the hard way that this is a one way street. At this point, my TWRP made full backup does not restore the device to the expected status. Each time I apply it, subsequent bootup takes several minutes and I end up going through the initial setup procedure. It seems the device for some reasoin goes through a complete reset procedure.
Titanium Backup is none better. It keeps telling me that my Android ID has changed, a host of system applications start to fail when I try to restore and generally speaking I have now spent between a good 20 hours trying to simply restore my data.
The end story is: root before you encrypt, and either don't upgrade or don't re-root if you do!
Unless someone has a cleat idea of how to do this properly without losing all your data, that is.
François
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had no issues despite doing upgrades, with and without wipes.
Titanium is fine, just stop restoring system app data. Seriously, what data do you have in a system app that you want to restore.
Restore your user apps, their data, and the xml based call, sms, Wifi backups. It will work fine.
Device ID isn't a problem - it's just trying to help you.
pulser_g2 said:
I have had no issues despite doing upgrades, with and without wipes.
Titanium is fine, just stop restoring system app data. Seriously, what data do you have in a system app that you want to restore.
Restore your user apps, their data, and the xml based call, sms, Wifi backups. It will work fine.
Device ID isn't a problem - it's just trying to help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry if I came across dissing Titanium Backup and/or TWRP. This was not the intent... I am sure both tools work real nice in general cases (and I have had success restoring data on a Jetstream before).
My main issue here is _full device encryption_ enforced by my company's corporate IT to allow me on the corporate exchange server. Do you have full device encryption on?
On my device, even after a full wipe and flashing a fresh stock rom Titanium Backup just did not work as I hoped. When I had to confirm individual popups of apps closing unexpectedly while it was proceeding and got nothing back in the end, what was I supposed to think? It could be that I don't understand how TB works... I was neither able to restore missing apps after the flash (missing apps: 0) nor installed apps data (they would close unexpectedly when started after restoring the back up). So I say: until full operation of TB on encrypted devices is documented, I will stay away from it, even though I am a registered user (and I do not plan to seek reimbursment)!
Anyway, I got to a belated happy ending (previous post edited).
frankieGom said:
Sorry if I came across dissing Titanium Backup and/or TWRP. This was not the intent... I am sure both tools work real nice in general cases (and I have had success restoring data on a Jetstream before).
My main issue here is _full device encryption_ enforced by my company's corporate IT to allow me on the corporate exchange server. Do you have full device encryption on?
On my device, even after a full wipe and flashing a fresh stock rom Titanium Backup just did not work as I hoped. When I had to confirm individual popups of apps closing unexpectedly while it was proceeding and got nothing back in the end, what was I supposed to think? It could be that I don't understand how TB works... I was neither able to restore missing apps after the flash (missing apps: 0) nor installed apps data (they would close unexpectedly when started after restoring the back up). So I say: until full operation of TB on encrypted devices is documented, I will stay away from it, even though I am a registered user (and I do not plan to seek reimbursment)!
Anyway, I got to a belated happy ending (previous post edited).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup I use device encryption Enabled manually, but it's the same encryption.
You should find that titanium shouldn't even be aware of it - the encryption is transparent!
I wonder... I'm sure lenny had that issue on a recent 4.1.2 "stock" ROM... And he doesn't use encryption...
I personally have had no issues with titanium on an encrypted device anyway
I notice you were using the newest rom - that's the one lenny had issues on.
pulser_g2 said:
Yup I use device encryption Enabled manually, but it's the same encryption.
You should find that titanium shouldn't even be aware of it - the encryption is transparent!
I wonder... I'm sure lenny had that issue on a recent 4.1.2 "stock" ROM... And he doesn't use encryption...
I personally have had no issues with titanium on an encrypted device anyway
I notice you were using the newest rom - that's the one lenny had issues on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly like I thought, encryption should be transparent to Titanium Backup since it runs within the OS.
I have had problems restoring into 4.1.2 DLL1 (the build I came from) and DLL7 (the one I was trying to go to)
The point is moot anyway since the DLL7 I tried was actually branded (Singtel stuff all around the launcher) and did not include French, which is why restoring my TWRP backup was a tempting proposition.
Good to know TB runs fine with encryption as well. What ROM are you running?
François
frankieGom said:
Hi all,
I recently got a HK N7105 and because it lacked the possibility to use a french keyboard I upgraded to a stock unbranded ROM from Sweden (XXDLL1) and succesfully rooted with the relevant CF_autoroot through Odin. Also installed TWRP 2.3.3.1.
Then, I connected the Note 2 to my corporate exchange server which enforced a full encryption policy (device and external SD card) so I had to type in a password at each boot time (with a "nice" swedish prompt that took ma while to decypher), plus a password to unlock the screen. All was well as the root survived the process.
Next I upgraded to a later stock ROM from France (XXDLL4 from SFR) to try and get rid of the swedish prompt. That worked fine (and root was loast in the process, as expected) but I hated the branded stuff so much I reverted to XXDLL1 until a proper unbranded "english" or "french" ROM is available.
At this point I decided to root again. I was running XXDLL1 like the first time and used the same autoroot tar from Chainfire. Except my Note 2 was still encrypted and after that it would not accept my boot password (a four digit PIN) anymore so I was guted and had to factory reset and root then reinstall everything before reconnecting to the exchange server.
Question 1: Does anyone know of a safe, proven way to root a fully encrypted Samsung device so I can go another upgrade without having to wipe the device first?
Why reinstall everything? Why not backup everything first so you can restore after the wipe? Well, it so happens that no recovery (at least neither CWM or TWRP) can read any encrypted media on the Note 2 at the moment. And no Recovery can actually fully backup the device as well.
Question 2: Does anyone know of a proper way to handle this situation with minimum hassle?
So far, the best I can think of is doing a Titanium backup and FTP the files to my NAS so I can retrieve them later. But (Question 3) will this be enough to restore my phone to the expected state after a stock firmware upgrade?
Thanks in advance,
François
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About a backup : have you tried Online Nandroid (Playstore) (or similar, based on Onandroid) ? This makes a CWM or TWRP compatible backup while the device is running (everything should be unencrypted at this moment).
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620255
About rooting : you can try the same trick as above, by using ADB-shell and pushing the needed files to root to the device while it is running.
For my S3 there is a Toolkit that automates all this (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1703488), maybe there is something similar for your device ?
If not, you should still be able to do it using manual ADB-pushing.
I'm sorry I can't give you detailed instructions about the rooting as I'm not familiar with your device. Search here on XDA and you'll find more details.
pat357 said:
About a backup : have you tried Online Nandroid (Playstore) (or similar, based on Onandroid) ? This makes a CWM or TWRP compatible backup while the device is running (everything should be unencrypted at this moment).
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620255
About rooting : you can try the same trick as above, by using ADB-shell and pushing the needed files to root to the device while it is running.
For my S3 there is a Toolkit that automates all this (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1703488), maybe there is something similar for your device ?
If not, you should still be able to do it using manual ADB-pushing.
I'm sorry I can't give you detailed instructions about the rooting as I'm not familiar with your device. Search here on XDA and you'll find more details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestions, and no I had not tried Online Nandroid as I was not aware of it. Anyway, my main issue is now resolved since TWRP has include support for Samsung TouchWiz based encryption in 2.4 and that works well.
For those interested, the only remaining issues I have with TWRP regarding encryption are that if you want to format /data from TWRP (say, to remove encryption) it will fail unless you _do not_ enter the password at boot, and the TWRP formated /data cannot be re-encrypted (you must use stock recovery to factory reset/wipe the device or else the encryption step will sit deat in the water doing nothing). I suppose the second one is a bug that will be fixed in a later version.
I will check Online Nandroid out anyway, being able to make a backup from a live system sounds good!
François
frankieGom said:
Thanks for the suggestions, and no I had not tried Online Nandroid as I was not aware of it. Anyway, my main issue is now resolved since TWRP has include support for Samsung TouchWiz based encryption in 2.4 and that works well.
For those interested, the only remaining issues I have with TWRP regarding encryption are that if you want to format /data from TWRP (say, to remove encryption) it will fail unless you _do not_ enter the password at boot, and the TWRP formated /data cannot be re-encrypted (you must use stock recovery to factory reset/wipe the device or else the encryption step will sit deat in the water doing nothing). I suppose the second one is a bug that will be fixed in a later version.
I will check Online Nandroid out anyway, being able to make a backup from a live system sounds good!
François
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a similar issue. I had the device encrypted and decided to ROOT (using CF-AutoRoot). Unfortunately I cannot bypass the password screen now, although I know that I'm entering the right password. You are saying that if I flash TWRP everything will be fine?
ludovicianul said:
I have a similar issue. I had the device encrypted and decided to ROOT (using CF-AutoRoot). Unfortunately I cannot bypass the password screen now, although I know that I'm entering the right password. You are saying that if I flash TWRP everything will be fine?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two separate things:
Root messing up encrypted touchwiz devices and twrp not handling touchwiz encrypted partitions properly.
The 2nd one, as much as I can tell, is fixed since before 2.5 so if youwork with the latest (2.6) you should be fine.
The first one I haven't played with in a while, but my finding is that you don't want to root a device once it's been encrypted. I've tried several different methods including rooting as you flag as is possible with twrp and all end up the same:the password is not recognised anymore!
The only thing that works for me is rooting before encrypting or only flashing pre-rooted ROMs.
frankieGom said:
Two separate things:
Root messing up encrypted touchwiz devices and twrp not handling touchwiz encrypted partitions properly.
The 2nd one, as much as I can tell, is fixed since before 2.5 so if youwork with the latest (2.6) you should be fine.
The first one I haven't played with in a while, but my finding is that you don't want to root a device once it's been encrypted. I've tried several different methods including rooting as you flag as is possible with twrp and all end up the same:the password is not recognised anymore!
The only thing that works for me is rooting before encrypting or only flashing pre-rooted ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes - I had to factory reset the phone and format the SD Card. Never root AFTER encryption :silly:

[Q] Formatted Phone and lost all my Nanodroid Backups

I had an issue with my phone, that caused me to returned the phone back to stock, relying that i had all my Nanodroid backups.
What do you know the Nanodroids were saved on the phone And my phone data was gone no backups were saved the main thing
i am really missing is the sms backup and restore files pls help.
Is there any way to recover them.
PS. when you were able to mount like mass storage device it was easier to recover now the recovery software's won't even find it.
tzvblsm said:
I had an issue with my phone, that caused me to returned the phone back to stock, relying that i had all my Nanodroid backups.
What do you know the Nanodroids were saved on the phone And my phone data was gone no backups were saved the main thing
i am really missing is the sms backup and restore files pls help.
Is there any way to recover them.
PS. when you were able to mount like mass storage device it was easier to recover now the recovery software's won't even find it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe this will help.
Yup I can say if u have any chance of getting your stuff back it'll be with the method linked above. I've used it several times and depending on the circumstances theres a significant chance of recovery

[Q] Sharing nandroid backup between phones?

TL;DR: Is it safe to swap a nandroid backup to a replacement phone, given both are Sprint GNex models?
I have two GNex' in my posession. One used to be my mom's that I traded up to a Moto G. Her's has a crack in the screen which doesn't affect usability but would affect selling price. I want to temporarily swap phones and use her old one and sell mine which is in better shape. Both are running TWRP but hers still had stock 4.3 and mine has LS 4.4. Any issues doing a nandroid on mine and tossing it on hers? Would it be a good idea to wipe system as well as data, internal storage, and cache on hers before I restore the nandroid?
I BELIEVE you CAN do this, just make sure you are running the right twrp version(basically just use the newest) and I'm NOT sure but I recall there being an option for backup/restore EFS(though I'm not sure exactly what that IS, you may want to look into that if it's something you have backed up, I'm unsure if THAT'S something you'd want to restore to another device) but basically I BELIEVE you will be just fine. wiping device is usually always a good idea, just make sure you haven't put your ONLY copy of the nandroid file onto the other device before you wipe it LOL. you will probably have to adb push the nandroid file after you've wiped system and such, unless you wait to wipe system partition until right before doing the restore, I'm assuming you are familiar with adb?
Thanks. Gave it a go and all seems well. Backed up every partition on the original device and wiped every partition on the donor. Only hiccup I ran into is nandroid's are tracked by phone serial so I simply had to find the serial number of the donor and rename the backup folder and it let me restore. Booted up, reset the cellular activation and reactivated and so far so good.

Anyone enabled encryption with CM11?

Since encryption is in the news right now with iPhones perhaps it's time we Android users looked into it more. I'm interested to hear other people's experiences. Did it work at all? Did it affect performance? Were you able to do upgrades after?
Search button, ~20 results, filter the useful ones, leave out the misleading ones...
Tayyab.Hasan said:
Disk encryption is working flawless. (Phone restarted in first attempt and wont show decrypt screen after first reboot otherwise no problem).
allangoing said:
Disk Encryption on Jan 26 is working correctly.
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llenp said:
Tested encryption and can verify it works 100%. But, there is a catch. It's always going to be a one-way street. Typically, when you encrypt a regular Android phone, the only way to decrypt it is to do a factory reset.
The only way to go back to an unencrypted state with our Fire Phones would be to format data (not wipe data) in Safestrap.
Unfortunately, this means you lose EVERYTHING. So you will definitely want to store any TWRP backups you have on your computer first.
Fortunately though, you will end up with a clean CM11 install after formatting data. Then all you have to do is go back and restore whatever TWRP backups you made before encrypting in the first place.
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it's working on slimkit, suppose working on CM11, but yes, you have to do factory reset for decryption.
When I encrypted, the encryption itself was fine, but Safestrap can't access /media that I know of. I put .zips in /cache and it worked like a charm. You'll need root to do that, though.
--EDIT--
If you also want to perform a NAND dump while encrypted, Onandroid seems to do a fantastic job at it.

TWRP Restore

So I went to restore a previous ROM and the phone when I go to login is asking for my PIN (as usual). My previous PIN however isn't working. What do I need to do in the future before I make a backup so this doesn't happen again? Thanks.
EDIT: My guess is the data partition being encrypted is causing a problem...it's not a big deal if I don't recover this one but for the future so I know what went wrong?
You'd probably have to format storage in TWRP. Then flash a rom that supports having no encryption
I'm not sure if formatting the restoring a backup with encryption will work, though.
Nosferatu. said:
So I went to restore a previous ROM and the phone when I go to login is asking for my PIN (as usual). My previous PIN however isn't working. What do I need to do in the future before I make a backup so this doesn't happen again? Thanks.
EDIT: My guess is the data partition being encrypted is causing a problem...it's not a big deal if I don't recover this one but for the future so I know what went wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
boot back into twrp recovery- advanced - file manager-data-system-delete the files with the name locksettings.adb and 2 or 3more with locksettings file name
Appreciate it guys!
just data/system/lockscreen.db needs to be deleted. :good:

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