Develop Bugs

[Q] Flashing a ROM, wiping data and backing up

Okay, well I have a noob question. I have a Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. A week ago I flashed Starburst 1.9 and everything went smooth installing wise. Followed install instructions by wiping data. The one thing that bummed me was losing all my contacts(but backed up by gmail account) and losing all my text messages. Apps lost I could live with.
So my question is, how do I back up my texts, contacts, etc and restore them easily? I want to flash Calkulin's ROM and I'm just going to install his FORMAT ALL zip then flash the ROM.
Any advice is appreciated!

Your contacts should automatically restore (if backed up in your Gmail) when you add your Google account in the new ROM. For backing up texts I personally use SMS Backup & Restore on the Android Market.

Go SMS also free from the market and a great SMS app (in my opinion) also has a backup feature to back up and restore your messages.

Thanks guys. Downloaded the app.
Noob questions again, are there any bad "side effects" using the above app. Also, how do I get the texts back after backing them up? CMR then use install zip from sd card after flashing rom...correct?
Thanks!

With Go SMS it is within the app itself, I haven't done it in a bit so do not remember the exact steps.
If I remember right it is menu, then something about a batch. It isn't too hard to find if you play around with the app.
Good luck

[Q] Restoring SMS Breaks ROMs ( Help Please )

I would REALLY appreciate some help with this please, because after 10 reflashes, I still can't find the problem. I've been trying to flash the Darkside Evolution ROM ( latest T-Mobile version ) on my phone. Everything seems to work fine, until I start restoring my text messages, at which point, all hell breaks lose. My stock messaging app just brings up a black screen and eventually FCs, Google Play keeps FCing as well, and occasionally, no keys typed in any of my keyboard apps show up in the fields selected. Reboots don't help.
Here's how I've been flashing ( running CWM 5.0.2.7 non-touch ): 1. flash darkside super wipe. 2. flash ROM. 3. flash darkside cache-wipe. 4. let system sit 10 minutes before toying with it. I've also tried flashing the cache-wipe after the 10 minute system sit, but I still have issues.
Here's what I've tried, with no success:
1. Searching the forums for any possible solution, but to no avail.
2. Mainly use GoSMS to backup & restore texts, but also tried SMS Backup & Restore and GoBackup instead, with same results, if not worse.
3. Re-ODINed to stock, rooted and flashed CWM again .
4. Checked MD5 checksum of all files I've said I've used; all are verified as correct.
5. Tried Settings->Applications, and deleting cache / data for troubled apps. Only fixes issue with Google Play.
5. Tried different ROMs ( Juggernaut v5.0 and Darkside Digital Warfare v2.7-( my somewhat stable DD until now) months ago, and Infamous 2.6-(worked after a couple of tries, but missing features I need) and Darkside Evolution v7 the past few days ).
TL;DR - Restoring SMS breaks any Rom I flash. Help please?

Could someone help, pretty please?
...I'm sorry if I sound pushy or agitated, but I spent about 20 hours just this past week, wiping, flashing, and restoring, over and over again with quite a few different ROMs to no avail, and unfortunately I'm not exaggerating. I'm tech savvy, but I know anyone can make stupid mistakes, and I would just REALLY appreciate it if someone could help me finally get to the bottom of this; it's been the bane of my rooting life. I can get on an IM app if that would make it easier.

I used to use Titanium Backup to restore sms & mms. But now I use Go Backup and hadn't had any issues. Every time I've used SMS Backup. I would get issues of the app freezing. I'm using TWRP for my recovery. I know some Dev's say not to use it but I haven't had one issue with it at all.
When you do restore your SMS & MMS are you rebooting your device right after?

Beefvvl said:
I used to use Titanium Backup to restore sms & mms. But now I use Go Backup and hadn't had any issues. Every time I've used SMS Backup. I would get issues of the app freezing. I'm using TWRP for my recovery. I know some Dev's say not to use it but I haven't had one issue with it at all.
When you do restore your SMS & MMS are you rebooting your device right after?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I've mostly used GoSMS Backup, but I've tried SMS Backup & Restore, Go Backup, and TiBu ( with "Migrate System Data" checked ) this week, but all of them cause random issues. I've been hesitant about using TWRP because a lot of people don't recommend it, but I don't mind giving that a shot if it won't brick my phone. Is there anything I should know about using it?
And sometimes I reboot right after an SMS/MMS restore, and sometimes I try to access the messages before rebooting. With TiBu, I always reboot first now. Either way, I still have issues.

I'm also on DarksideEvolution.3.v7, and have used SMS Backup and Restore without any issues. Also used SMS Backup+ without issues. I've restored anywhere from 400-800 +/- messages. How many text messages are you trying to restore? My only thought, was if your backup has thousands of messages, it may cause a memory issue that causes the hang ups.

I'm trying to restore about 12,000 text messages...
I was able to get DarksideEvolution3v7 completely working once, except that my GPS wasn't working, so I was going to wait until TDJ releases an update with a GPS fix until I try Darkside again. I haven't used SMS Backup+ because I don't want to use cloud services, and SMS Backup & Restore is one of the best working ones right now. I just tried GoBackup again, and after about 65%, it force closed with some kind of unknown exception error, and no texts showed even after a reboot.

That's your issue. Had it happen to me awhile back. Had to do some manipulation to get it to work. I forget the details exactly unfortunately. However, I do recall it was related to The max limiter in the messaging app and had to go with handcent, adjusted max sms settings higher prior to SMS refresh. Then had some issues with mMs which is the part I forget

Tb has the xml backup feature now, that might help since the backup file is smaller, so maybe memory isn't such an issue

I was afraid it might be something like that. I've had issues with previous phones restoring texts when I start hitting around 10k messages, but nothing this severe, and I figured that our SGSII's processing power should be able to handle it. I've been making sure that under the stock messaging settings, "Delete Old Messages" is always unchecked, but I'm not sure if that's what the max limiter is.
And do you know if there's anything special that I have to do to activate that TiBu feature? I saw it in my changelog when I updated, but I wasn't sure.

Galaxy Nexus Can Not Message after Installing ROM - Codename Android 3.8.0

I was using the Codename Android 3.4.1 ROM on my VZW Galaxy Nexus and wanted to update the ROM (now on version 3.8.0). I downloaded the zip files needed, did a Nandroid back up, wiped data, cache, and Delvik cache. Installed the new ROM, and everything was fine. I have Titanium Backup pro. I was restoring everything and there seemed to be no problems. After my text messages restored, I had an issue with any messaging apps. I use Handcent. I could sometimes view conversations, but the app would have problems if I tried to send anything. I was trying to reply to someone who had texted me while my phone was restoring. I waited until the restore was complete before getting back to them. Handcent freezes when I select a conversation or just start it up. When I try the stock messaging app, it say "Loading Conversations" but never moves past that. I tried restoring my Nandroid backup to before I flashed the new ROM, but I isn't restoring to the exact state from the time of the back up. It appears as though the damage is done. Any idea what could be happening here or how I could fix it?
Thanks

dont restore any data from a system app.

[Q] Can't run Nandroid backup

Ok forgive me, I'm fairly new to all of this...
So I have the SGH-i317m (Telus version) of the Note II. I rooted it many months ago and everything went great. The other day I decided that I wanted to flash the Jelly Beans rom for it. So I ran a Nanadroid backup of the original rom, then used Titanium Backup to backup my apps. Everything went fine with that. So then I rebooted in recovery and did a data wipe/factory reset and also wiped the partition cache, then flashed the rom. Again everything went smoothly.
Here's where my "newb" side comes to play. After I restored my apps, everything backed up fine other than some of my contacts, text message logs, and call logs. I assume this is because I used the wrong backup setting in Titanium Backup? I think I should have used "Backup all user apps + system data", but instead I used "Backup all user apps" (can anyone verify this?)
So anyways, I went to restore the backup so I could retrieve all of this info. Again I wiped data/factory reset and wiped the cache before running the backup (which was a zip on the external sd card). Almost immediately I received a message saying "error while restoring /system!"
So I did some reading and found a thread saying that it didn't work because the nandroid backup can only backup the original rom. So I reflashed the stock firmware (again doing the full wipe), and that didn't work either giving me a message saying "can't open "file name" (bad). Installation aborted".
Can you guys give me a hand? When I try flashing the Jelly Beans rom (also I've flashed the Clean rom as well), they both work fine. I just get troubles trying to run my backup or installing the stock firmware.
Sorry for the length, I just wanted to make sure I provided as many of the details as I could. Thanks!

First yous should Never backup/restore system apps/data. It is a sure way to cause FC.
Second if you want to backup SMS/MMS hit menu on Titanium Backup and scroll down to Backup data to xml. If you don't care about MMS download SMS Backup & Restore from the market (free) as the backup/restore process will be a lot quicker.
What recovery are you using? There apps that let you explore the Backups and retrieve some information. In fact even Titanium Backup PRO restores certain items from nandroids so it's worth checking out.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

I was having an issue restoring the system partition. Data was failing, but running system alone I saw it said:
Can't read: misc/audit/audit/audit/audit/audit/audit/audit...
That went on forever.
It never skipped it, was just stuck trying to read the folder it was in.
Any ideas what could cause this?
I went back to stock so it's not pressing, but I don't want to do it again
Killed one of my backups.
I'm using TWRP 2.6.1.0
Backup had been successful. Restoring it would seem ok until phone reset/shut off. Then would hang on boot.
I got curious and tried restoring partitions individually to see what would happen.
Data always failed and system did that infinite directory thing.
If anyone's got any ideas what I should avoid doing so I don't mess up another backup, I'd appreciate it

The data partition is usually your photos, music, and movies. You should move all that stuff to your external sd card before you make a nandroid. Some versions of custom recoveries have a limit on the size of the backup, so if you have a lot of media in there, it will cause a nandroid to fail.

Jibust I just used the recovery that is already on the phone by pressing volume up/power/home at the same time. You said that there are apps that will retrieve information from my backups? Is this my only option? There is no way to run my backup now? It seems strange that I can't run it in the first place. It seems like it should be a fairly straight forward process. If there is no way to run my full backup, can you give me more details on how to use these apps to pull info from the backups?
Thank you

*Canucklehead* said:
Jibust I just used the recovery that is already on the phone by pressing volume up/power/home at the same time. You said that there are apps that will retrieve information from my backups? Is this my only option? There is no way to run my backup now? It seems strange that I can't run it in the first place. It seems like it should be a fairly straight forward process. If there is no way to run my full backup, can you give me more details on how to use these apps to pull info from the backups?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a look at the apps in this search, https://play.google.com/store/search?q=nandroid I have used the Nandroid Manager app, I haven't tried the other ones. Just make sure to read the description as not all of the apps will be able to explore/restore from all types of backups. Warning: I have never tried this, only seen people use it, some of the apps have xda threads so I suggest you take a look.
Also, as mentioned Titanium Backup Pro (at least I use the Pro version) has a feature to restore selected data from the nandroid backup. I have tried it and it works, so maybe you only need to use TB and don't have to purchase another app.
Edit: tried to restore apps from a nandroid using TB and had a FC, so you might want to try one of the other apps.

Nandroid Manager
I have used Nandroid Manager to recover individual apps + data - worth a try. Although people report mixed results.

[Q] Problem with titanium backup on CM11 restoring hangouts sms messages

So I'm having problems trying to restore my sms messages in hangouts using titanium backup. I've flashed CM11 Nightly on my device, installed gapps, and flashed the most recent supersu to obtain root. When I open up titanium backup it opens up fine but when I try and click on "hangouts" under Backup/Restore it crashes everytime. So instead of doing it that way I did it through the batch restore system option. I have the "migrate system data" box checked. When I restore the app data, it says its successful and I reboot the device. When I open up hangouts, all of my sms messages are there but the app closes down and when I open it up again they are gone. I also tried restoring the data then using "sms backup and restore" to backup the messages but everytime I do that it only backs up the 4 messages I have actually received to the device after flashing CM11. I am getting frustrated and am unsure what to do next. Also has anyone else noticed that the launcher in CM11 is slow and laggy or is that just me?
Thanks.

I haven't had any notable issues with slow/lagginess in the CM11 "google search" launcher. I've not tried the alternative (launcher3), though.
I'm exactly in your boat with the hangouts messages though. I've recently moved onto the GNex from a Nexus S, and my hangouts/sms (xml and data) backups through TB only ever restore temporarily. Keen on finding a way to sort this out to get my old texts back.