Lineageos major version updates - LineageOS Questions & Answers

When updating a major version - i.e. from Lineageos 16 to Lineageos 17 - it would seem you have to go through steps similar to the initial install (sideloading and what not).
My question is, do you lose everything on the device after performing this? Do I lose all of my installed apps, settings, messages, etc? Or is it just an overwrite of the core operating system?
My concern always is that I'll forget to back something up that I wish I'd backed up. Probably prudent to go ahead and backup stuff before attempting the upgrade. But I'm just wondering how much time should I spend insuring that everything I need is backed up. If the apps, settings, messages, etc are all expected to be there after upgrading, then I'm probably less concerned about spending a large chunk of time insuring everything is backed up.

all your data is stored in the /data partition which is not touched by the lineageos install. lineageos will install into the /system partition. you might edit your boot partition too, depending on your phone, but your data which includes all your installed apps (not the system apps that came with the phone) and your messages, settings, etc, is not touched. your camera photos and some settings are also on your /sdcard which is also untouched as long as you dont do a factory reset or wipe. that erases the /data and /sdcard partition.
if something goes wrong and your phone stops working then you can probably fix it but you want to have a backup in case you do need to wipe. you may or may not be able to recover the data, depends on the problem. always backup.

Related

[Q] Lose data with flashing a new rom?

I have several apps and data on my Desire... Currently I am running a MIUI-rom. I already made a backup of the rom... If I decide to flash a new rom, does that mean I will lose all my data, like saves from games and stuff like that?
hi,
so if you dont backup them you will lose them probably
TitatniumBackup can save your user apps + data, so this will not be lost
but system data(wifi spots, contacts, bookmarks, ...) could also be backuped but with care!
if you change the android version most of the system apps change and also if you change rom type it will probably not work.
i can tell you how i do save all my data.
1. i do a complete nandroidbackup (if you want 2 go back from where you came)
2. a Titanium´Backup (sometimes system data could also be restored)
3. i use MyPhoneExplorer to backup my Contacts
4. MyBackup Root, to save my Sms/mms and other stuff (exept from Contact wich are put in the Google Account i like the app
Sounds a little bit much, but most of the apps have advantages at some point but also flaws on a other point!
ps.: yep i know most of them could be stored in the cloud but i like it lokal
I use the Google backup feature when registering my account on first boot.
Last time, all my user apps and data restored, plus wifi profiles, system settings etc (even my wallpaper) were reapplied. I did nandroid and TiBu also but didn't use them at all!
To use this you could nandroid backup, wipe everything, restore and check the options re backup when registering. Then wipe everything again, flash rom of choice, and wait. You may need a reboot for all the changes to take effect!
that kind of datas are stored in SDCard, so if you don't format it, you should not have problems, but always do a backup before flashing

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.

[SOLVED] How to completely wipe literally EVERYTHING

I looked through many threads, posts, websites, and tutorials, but none of them say how to literally wipe my device completely (it could be that it's not possible), what I want to do is completely remove literally everything so that it's like a brand new hard drive without even any files in it.
'Factory Reset' doesn't remove everything because android still boots after a factory reset and android wouldn't be able to boot if there were no files on the device. TWRP doesn't remove everything either because how is twrp running, and I can still see the androids root directories in twrps file manager (TWRP does tell me that there's no OS installed, but then why is there still a functioning file system with actual files in them).
I want to completely wipe everything so that any future roms I download will have no way to be affected by any old kernels/roms/apps that I have installed in the past. I want to clean install android on top of a literally empty phone hard drive. If this isn't possible then what's the closest to that that I can get? Cuz I tried various roms and I had bugs that persisted between multiple roms even though other people said that they didn't have these issues.
In case you're wondering: I'm currently running LineageOS 15.1, oreo 8.1
Your best bet it to wipe using stock image. Reinstall TWRP and wipe system, cache and data before installing new ROM
I agree with the advice given by Vanschtezla.
Also, if you would completely wipe all data on the phone's storage then that would also wipe the partition table. The storage area is divided into partitions which are mounted to for example /system /data and /cache when your phone boots.
Also there is no real need to "wipe everything" as you say as that could brick your phone. If you just boot TWRP and wipe using "Factory reset" and additionally: System then everything should be clean enough to install a new ROM. Depending on the ROM it will wipe the System partition anyway.
Kernels reside in the system partition so when you wipe System, any Kernel is gone
Pre installed (system) Apps sit in the System partition so wipe System and they are gone
User Apps sit in the data partition so wipe data (that is included in the Factory reset) and they're gone
All in all I think you're expecting issues that simply do not exist. Especially if you just follow the instructions of the (custom) ROM you want to install.
THANK YOU!
peterpv said:
I agree with the advice given by Vanschtezla.
Kernels reside in the system partition so when you wipe System, any Kernel is gone
Pre installed (system) Apps sit in the System partition so wipe System and they are gone
User Apps sit in the data partition so wipe data (that is included in the Factory reset) and they're gone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I was looking for! Why don't any "How to wipe your phone" guides say these things (even the ones that get more technical don't mention what exactly gets deleted for each wipe option, which is why from your perspective it was probably very weird to read my question).

Missing back-up/phone locked/weird sd-card behaviour

Hi together,
just as a disclaimer, I don't really have knowledge in this field (custom roms etc), but I'm willing to learn and understand what is going on.
I have the Moto G5 as my daily phone with the unofficial lineage 17 from the xda-forum. It's not rooted. Now i saw that the g5 got official support for LOS18, so I wanted to upgrade. However, I had some important files on my phone, so I wanted to do a backup (with twrp), which i did on a different sd-card than the one I was using as storage. Or so i thought. The upgrade itself wasn't really a problem, at first i forgot to wipe the phone, but i realized right after the installation, wiped it accordingly to the instructions and did the installation again. The phone booted without a problem and everything seemed fine. I encrypted the phone accidently, i thought it was the lockscreen pin. But it wouldnt recognize the sd i used as storage on the previous version. Because i had pictures, music etc on the card, i wanted to restore my backup to use the phone as before. Well... to my surprise, on the sd i used to back up i couldn't find it, but strangely there were now two versions of a backup i made some months ago, only different in the timestamp (not the date) in their filename. I didn' know if one of them was the one i made, or if i had made two backups back in the days. I was confused, but i chose on of them at random and restored it. It seemed to have worked, it booted to the familiar lockscreen i set up a while ago. But then: it wouldnt accept the pin, even though i knew it was the right one - at least for the system i have used the same morning. I had to delete the lockpin.db (or how it was called) via twrp to acces the phone again. The former uncompatible storage sd now got recognized and worked, the phone showed all the apps i had before, i was still logged in in all of them etc. But: i made a photo, wanted to look at it in my gallery app, and i briefly saw my albums - then they vanished and only the photo i had taken was there. So now all the pictures, music are gone from the sd. Some funky things are different, the swipe directions for the "recent apps" and "back" buttons on the fingerprint sensor are switched and i cannot find the menu to change them. That's the story.
Here are my questions:
The backup i made - why wasn't it called with the proper date and time? Or have i deleted it somehow due to my wiping mistake? but it was on the sd... ?
I now assume i restored the old backup with a different lockscreen pin, and thats why the pin i thought was correct didn't work. But some apps which i hadn't installed at the time i made the backup where there and with all the recent data. Doesn't that mean the sd has some kind of image of the system or rather the apps themselves stored? but why are the pictures and the music gone? Is there any chancce to get it back? Can I upgrade to LOS18 and use the same sd as storage without the need to format it?
I'd like to learn what the mechanisms behind all these happenings are and would be glad if someone could explain it! Thanks in advance!
Twrp backups do no backup personal files - This includes music pictures and documents. These must be backuped up yourself to a pc, external device or the cloud.
TWRP backups do backup the following for example
System - your current rom
Data - apps and their data of your current rom, phone settings
Boot - Kernel
Never restore data on a different rom. The data contains apps and settings for your current rom and restoring this on a different rom will likely lead to a bootloop or an unstable device. This is why you had issues with passwords.
In regards to personal files - if you have formatted data of an encrypted device then it removes encryption and thus formats internal storage. Anything on this will be lost.
If you are changing roms you need to format data and then install everything again via the playstore (or manually via apk)
You can use 3rd party apps that backup apps and data but I advise against this as what it restore may be unstable on a different OS
As with the twrp date I assume twrp assigns the correct date. The file would be lost if you backup up to internal storage and your formatted data. I don't know what happened to it if you backed up to an external device.

Question Can I skip wiping internal storage while changing roms?

Everytime I have to change my rom, My apks , music, books get wiped. Is there a possibiltiy to not wipe internal storage, just format , like it used to happen on a only devices?
Switching roms would require you to wipe, you may use some software to backup and restore your apps if you have root access. I don't flash roms now, but when I use to I used Titanium Backup for this, you can try it if it still works.
The OxygenOS @Funk Wizard? Lol
Bupreno said:
Everytime I have to change my rom, My apks , music, books get wiped. Is there a possibiltiy to not wipe internal storage, just format , like it used to happen on a only devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are going between custom ROMs of the same base version (meaning they all use the same OOS base like C.62), you do not have to do the wipe operation and can just dirty flash, but it's highly recommended to do a wipe so you don't have weird issues. If you do decide to dirty flash, at least do the dev the courtesy of holding off any bug reports until after you factory reset because if you have a weird problem nobody else is reporting, there's a pretty good chance it's because you dirty flashed.
If you're going between stock ROMs, that's a bit more complicated. I have successfully used Fastboot Enhance to upgrade, downgrade, and crossflash between different versions and it generally works as long as I'm not trying to downgrade or upgrade between Android 11 and 12 and I make sure to delete all the cow partitions in the partition screen before starting the flash. Trying to go from ColorOS 13 beta back to C.62 didn't work either but I have flashed between various C builds of OOS for different regions as well as ColorOS 12.1 and they've all worked.
That said, you should always do a full backup because things do go wrong. I have done it so many times on this phone that I have it down to a science now. I hook my phone up and use adb pull -a /sdcard to grab everything, do a system backup to Google Drive using the backup option in settings, back up my Signal messages, and when I'm on a stock ROM, I use the OnePlus backup to grab all my apps and settings. When I restore, I skip the initial Google account setup, I delete the Android folder from the adb pull folder and drag and drop the rest of it to the root of the storage, then I use the OnePlus backup to restore (if it's a stock ROM), then I log into my Google account and run that restore and the rest of the setup process, then I restore my Signal messages. Doing it in this order, I end up with the least amount of data loss. I don't even have to reconfigure my battery settings for my apps on the stock ROM doing it this way, it's all carried over, which saves me about 15 minutes of turning off optimizations for everything so my notifications work right.

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