The new partitions are not very clear to me...
What do I have to backup to fully restore the phone?
Boot, data, system and vendor? No IMGs?
Thanks!
I believe the ones that are already selected when you go to make a backup. Data, system, boot. Though I tried to make a backup last night and it failed to mount and wouldn't create a backup. It might be because I'm still encrypted
I made a full backup with TWRP (checked every box), compression enabled. Now, while trying to restore my backup file only shows restore "system"? I don't see data, recovery, boot, etc. Have I lost it all?
You only need system. Data can be corrupt, recovery doesn't exist and etc never changes anyway.
Beamed in by telepathy.
So I decided to take my first steps to rooting, custom recoveries and ROMs and followed a stickied thread on the OnePlus forums here.
I firstly downgraded from Nougat to Marshmallow using the official Stock ROM. Afterwards, I flashed the recovery.img for TWRP from the official TWRP site. All is good.
I boot into TWRP and it asks me for a decryption password, I enter it and get "Incorrect Password". I try to boot normally and the same thing happens - weird. One member on another forum, from another question, suggested to wipe data through TWRP, and so I did. This cleared the decryption message through TWRP but then I got a boot loop with a simple message of "Decryption Unsuccessful". I press reset and the phone repeats everything.
Anywho, I flashed stock recovery and a fresh Marshmallow ROM which sorted my phone back to safeland.
Question is, how can I bypass all this? I followed the guide to the tee but no mention of this. I'm a n00b to flashing and only really know as far as the instructions on the OnePlus support page for flashing a stock ROM.
Use TWRP 3.0.4-1, it has decryption support.
If you are planning on rooting with SuperSU, use v2.79, not the first one that pops up when you Google "SuperSU". Not sure why, but the first link that pops up on Google directs you to an older version on Chainfire's site, which causes bootloops if you flash it on Nougat.
Other than the versions of the above files, the steps in rooting are the same as in the original guide.
I personally keep my phone decrypted, since I don't have anything super important on it. Not only do I not run into any encryption issues, the phone boots faster is decrypted. Decrypting does have its downsides though (you have to wipe your phone, also less security), so I would recommend that you research about it some more prior to deciding. There are methods of decrypting without losing all data though.
Anova's Origin said:
Use TWRP 3.0.4-1, it has decryption support.
If you are planning on rooting with SuperSU, use v2.79, not the first one that pops up when you Google "SuperSU". Not sure why, but the first link that pops up on Google directs you to an older version on Chainfire's site, which causes bootloops if you flash it on Nougat.
Other than the versions of the above files, the steps in rooting are the same as in the original guide.
I personally keep my phone decrypted, since I don't have anything super important on it. Not only do I not run into any encryption issues, the phone boots faster is decrypted. Decrypting does have its downsides though (you have to wipe your phone, also less security), so I would recommend that you research about it some more prior to deciding. There are methods of decrypting without losing all data though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I agree with you, I'm not fussed about Encryption and would rather have my device decrypted, the problem is I'm not sure how to decrypt it, or if it would be possible to revert and re-encrypt afterwards. As far as I know, Encryption is enabled by default on anything Marshmallow. In addition whether Decrypting would cause further issues down the line.
My reasoning for reverting to Marshmallow was Xposed and is the main reason I'd like to root with the possibility of flashing a new ROM.
In reply to your other points, I used the official TWRP from here if that makes a difference or should I be using the build you provided, surely if I can decrypt my device it makes it pointless for something with decryption support, yes?
Nonetheless, appreciate the reply!
The TWRP build from the official site is a little outdated, it is known to have decryption issues. Try the one from the XDA page.
To decrypt, you have to either root or flash a dm-verity-no-encrypt.zip that is floating somewhere around on XDA, there's probably a copy of it in the root guide in your first post. If you have no data on your phone that you mind losing (after saving a copy somewhere off your phone), the easiest way to decrypt is to go into TWRP and wipe your /data partition. If your phone is rooted or flashed with the no-encrypt.zip, the /data partition will not be encrypted the next time you boot.
There is a way to decrypt while maintaining your data, you can follow this guide. It involved saving a nandroid (saves all info in /data partition except /data/media, where all your media files and certain app data is stored). You can then save anything in /data/media by transferring it to your computer prior to wipe. You can actually restore a nandroid from an encrypted phone onto the same decrypted phone without having all your files encrypted. You can then transfer all your files from the /data/media folder back to your phone, though you'll need to give all the files and folders the proper permissions.
Once decrypted, you phone will remain decrypted until you flash OOS again, such as when updating. To prevent the phone from automatically encrypting its /data partition, you'll have to flash SuperSU or the no-encrypt.zip immediately after flashing an OOS ROM everytime you flash it.
If at some point down the road, you'd like to encrypt your phone again, that's really easy. You can go into the settings app -> secuity -> scroll to bottom to "encrypt". Clicking that option will encrypt your phone without data loss.
I personally have not had any issues after decrypting my phone. I can't speak for others though.
Anova's Origin said:
The TWRP build from the official site is a little outdated, it is known to have decryption issues. Try the one from the XDA page.
To decrypt, you have to either root or flash a dm-verity-no-encrypt.zip that is floating somewhere around on XDA, there's probably a copy of it in the root guide in your first post. If you have no data on your phone that you mind losing (after saving a copy somewhere off your phone), the easiest way to decrypt is to go into TWRP and wipe your /data partition. If your phone is rooted or flashed with the no-encrypt.zip, the /data partition will not be encrypted the next time you boot.
There is a way to decrypt while maintaining your data, you can follow this guide. It involved saving a nandroid (saves all info in /data partition except /data/media, where all your media files and certain app data is stored). You can then save anything in /data/media by transferring it to your computer prior to wipe. You can actually restore a nandroid from an encrypted phone onto the same decrypted phone without having all your files encrypted. You can then transfer all your files from the /data/media folder back to your phone, though you'll need to give all the files and folders the proper permissions.
Once decrypted, you phone will remain decrypted until you flash OOS again, such as when updating. To prevent the phone from automatically encrypting its /data partition, you'll have to flash SuperSU or the no-encrypt.zip immediately after flashing an OOS ROM everytime you flash it.
If at some point down the road, you'd like to encrypt your phone again, that's really easy. You can go into the settings app -> secuity -> scroll to bottom to "encrypt". Clicking that option will encrypt your phone without data loss.
I personally have not had any issues after decrypting my phone. I can't speak for others though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brilliant. On a side note, I'm sure I did a /data wipe, which caused the boot loop I was having - weird. Anywho, I'll try the TWRP build you mentioned and see how I get on. I did watch one video which suggested to use the fastboot erase userdata as another way of unencrypting the phone.
Either way I'll give it all a try!
Anova's Origin said:
The TWRP build from the official site is a little outdated, it is known to have decryption issues. Try the one from the XDA page.
To decrypt, you have to either root or flash a dm-verity-no-encrypt.zip that is floating somewhere around on XDA, there's probably a copy of it in the root guide in your first post. If you have no data on your phone that you mind losing (after saving a copy somewhere off your phone), the easiest way to decrypt is to go into TWRP and wipe your /data partition. If your phone is rooted or flashed with the no-encrypt.zip, the /data partition will not be encrypted the next time you boot.
There is a way to decrypt while maintaining your data, you can follow this guide. It involved saving a nandroid (saves all info in /data partition except /data/media, where all your media files and certain app data is stored). You can then save anything in /data/media by transferring it to your computer prior to wipe. You can actually restore a nandroid from an encrypted phone onto the same decrypted phone without having all your files encrypted. You can then transfer all your files from the /data/media folder back to your phone, though you'll need to give all the files and folders the proper permissions.
Once decrypted, you phone will remain decrypted until you flash OOS again, such as when updating. To prevent the phone from automatically encrypting its /data partition, you'll have to flash SuperSU or the no-encrypt.zip immediately after flashing an OOS ROM everytime you flash it.
If at some point down the road, you'd like to encrypt your phone again, that's really easy. You can go into the settings app -> secuity -> scroll to bottom to "encrypt". Clicking that option will encrypt your phone without data loss.
I personally have not had any issues after decrypting my phone. I can't speak for others though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thought I'd post a little update, I managed to install TWRP and Root. I used fastboot erase userdata which fixed my decryption issue - everything was working! Back to stock Nougat now but am going to be trying Magisk.
I have installed Nougat and done lots of customizations. I just learned that in order to root and disable forced encryption I have to wipe user data. Is there any workaround? I don't want to lose my data.
Removing encrypting and rooting are two different, independent things. You may decide to root only. Then wipe is not necessary.
(Do a backup in any case)
My experience with encryption is not that bad. I have an encrypted RETUS variant that's stuck in MM with a November security patch. I flashed xperience nougat ROM along with magisk (which comes with root) and everytime I reboot or boot into TWRP I have to put in my password to decrypt my data partition.
The only workaround to backing up and removing encryption that I know of is to make a backup with titanium, this is almost as good as a TWRP backup of data given you know what you're doing. After the backup, you can copy the titanium folder onto your PC before you wipe and then copy it back in to restore the backup.
Cant recall so many partition options in my earlier phones, but with Oreo 8.1 on Rn5 I find these:
boot, cache, data, recovery, system, system image, vendor, vendor image, modem, efs
In all, 10 backup and restore options. I understand data and system are the main ones for backup and restore. And for safe keeping modem, efs as separate backup to the side (not used in regular backup/restore operations).
What about all these new partitions I'm seeing? system image, vendor, vendor image? If I am backing up 9.5.19 and moving to (miui 10) 8.8.23, is data and system all that is required to backup? Will 8.8.23 (fw-less rom) affect these new partitions mentioned? So to restore 9.5.19, just restore data and system and that is enough?
Much thanks.