[Q] Advice on backup and rooting - Samsung Captivate Glide

First post and I have to say great forum here and lots of great information!!
I am a long time unix / linux user and work in the technology product development and I have been researching for about a week after updating to official ICS over Kies for information on backuping up my phone and rooting.
I had considered rooting before but never had a good reason really until I loaded the official ICS update and had to reset to get it working, losing all my apps / data. Kies was not cooperating so I did not get a good backup and it would not keep my app settings any way. This is when I found out that my old Blackberry and even iPhone had much more complete backup solutions that non-rooted Android. I have totally recovered the other devices without losing anything in the past so I thought Android would be a snap as well.
Any way to the point now. After searching I have found great work done by the members and I feel pretty comfortable proceeding to root my stock ICS and getting Titanium to do a full backup. I will fix my keyboard and few other things while at it.
My questions are:
1. When the next official release comes from ATT / Samsung will I have to reflash to the stock boot.img (found in another thread) to be able to get the upgrade and then root my phone again?
2. Once rooted, is it better to just come back here and get the updated ROM and flash manually?
3. Is the best way to achieve the complete backup solution I am looking for?
I am pretty happy with the stock ROMs but I want to be able to get a good and full backup going forward since it takes so long to reinstall everything. I could even live with the bloatware if I was confident I could completely restore at anytime.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Roy

Titanium is good for backing up apps and data. If you want a complete back up, you'll want to make a nandroid backup with CWMR. As for the ROM part, it all depends on if you're happy with what you get stock or if you like customized things. I'm sick right now or I would go into detail.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)

Shawn said:
Titanium is good for backing up apps and data. If you want a complete back up, you'll want to make a nandroid backup with CWMR. As for the ROM part, it all depends on if you're happy with what you get stock or if you like customized things. I'm sick right now or I would go into detail.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Shawn. I saw a reference to nandroid but did not realize it was part of CWMR. Can I assume if I get CWMR loaded I will be able to backup my current apps / settings or will that just set me up for the next time? I have been sort of assuming once I get CWMR loaded and get root that I may lose my current settings.
Appreciate the reply especially while sick! Hope you feel better soon.

VideoRoy said:
Thanks Shawn. I saw a reference to nandroid but did not realize it was part of CWMR. Can I assume if I get CWMR loaded I will be able to backup my current apps / settings or will that just set me up for the next time? I have been sort of assuming once I get CWMR loaded and get root that I may lose my current settings.
Appreciate the reply especially while sick! Hope you feel better soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A nandroid backup is more like an image backup of the flash, so you would have to restore the whole thing to get back any files you may have lost. It's mostly for backing up prior to flashing a new ROM, so if you don't like it you can go back to what you had easily.
If you want to back up pictures and things like that you should be able to plug the phone into a computer and mount the flash as a drive (I've done this on my Linux and Windows systems many times). Then you can copy the files you want to save to your computer, or copy a new ROM to the phone so you can flash it with CWMR.

You're welcome. Nandroid backups are for when your phone bootloops or is "bricked" or if you want to restore to something previous. For me, I use Titanium to backup all app data before flashing something and then make a Nandroid with CWMR. In my opinion its a good idea to use both so you're safe from any problems down the road.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)

Shawn said:
You're welcome. Nandroid backups are for when your phone bootloops or is "bricked" or if you want to restore to something previous. For me, I use Titanium to backup all app data before flashing something and then make a Nandroid with CWMR. In my opinion its a good idea to use both so you're safe from any problems down the road.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)
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Click to collapse
mvi57 and Shawn,
Thanks guys, got it now. I will probably do both types of backups as well.
I think I understand the system a little better now. The recovery partition probably does not affect the bootloader or ROM so if I just replace it with CWMR I still boot the same and will not lose my current data. I am guessing the next official ROM will probably load fine but I would probably just have to root the phone again.
Thanks for putting up with the noob questions. I have not done embedded development before but some of the guys on team have so I have some terminology i need to get used to.

VideoRoy said:
mvi57 and Shawn,
Thanks guys, got it now. I will probably do both types of backups as well.
I think I understand the system a little better now. The recovery partition probably does not affect the bootloader or ROM so if I just replace it with CWMR I still boot the same and will not lose my current data. I am guessing the next official ROM will probably load fine but I would probably just have to root the phone again.
Thanks for putting up with the noob questions. I have not done embedded development before but some of the guys on team have so I have some terminology i need to get used to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will need to root again once you update. Replacing stock recovery with CWMR will not make you lose any data.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)

VideoRoy said:
First post and I have to say great forum here and lots of great information!!
I am a long time unix / linux user and work in the technology product development and I have been researching for about a week after updating to official ICS over Kies for information on backuping up my phone and rooting.
I had considered rooting before but never had a good reason really until I loaded the official ICS update and had to reset to get it working, losing all my apps / data. Kies was not cooperating so I did not get a good backup and it would not keep my app settings any way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a hard lesson to learn that there were relatively easy solutions to avoid it :/ I as a fellow long time Linux user, I'm suprised!. I myself can not stand not having root access when I need it. I luckily have had Titanium Backup for quite some time now and it IS a life saver for many of your apps and settings! It's a must! I too had the issue of not being able to update via kies and assumed it was because my device was rooted, so in my frustrated lack of sleep mood I had going, I said meh all and grabbed easily accessible data off the memory and flashed the ICS from sammobile.com if i remember right. I've since flashed NardRom as well and am having some signal/sms issues. That being said, MAKE SURE you do a nandroid backup and don't get all anxious and overzealous like I did. If I am not mistaken and understand correctly, sometimes when flashing roms you may overwrite various signal related files like the modem or wireless? With a nandroid backup you can simply restore from that like nothing ever happened! Just follow directions to the T. I've yet to brick my SGH-i927 but I've bricked our captivates a few times

ZeroHour064 said:
It's a hard lesson to learn that there were relatively easy solutions to avoid it :/ I as a fellow long time Linux user, I'm suprised!. I myself can not stand not having root access when I need it. I luckily have had Titanium Backup for quite some time now and it IS a life saver for many of your apps and settings! It's a must! I too had the issue of not being able to update via kies and assumed it was because my device was rooted, so in my frustrated lack of sleep mood I had going, I said meh all and grabbed easily accessible data off the memory and flashed the ICS from sammobile.com if i remember right. I've since flashed NardRom as well and am having some signal/sms issues. That being said, MAKE SURE you do a nandroid backup and don't get all anxious and overzealous like I did. If I am not mistaken and understand correctly, sometimes when flashing roms you may overwrite various signal related files like the modem or wireless? With a nandroid backup you can simply restore from that like nothing ever happened! Just follow directions to the T. I've yet to brick my SGH-i927 but I've bricked our captivates a few times
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am with you all the way.
I have installed CWMR now and completed a nandroid backup. After tracking down the backup I copied to my laptop for safe keeping. Also installed the keyboard fix only and it worked fine. Later tonight I will give root a try with Titanium.
BTW I was having SMS issues with the stock ICS. No alerts and basic funky things. I have loaded Go SMS Pro and am happier not only fixing the app issues but giving me Group text mode so I am not an outcast with the rest of my iPhone family
Thanks for helping me get going here.

ICS has a bunch of issues, including the bad notifications.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)

As others have posted. I back up all my information per app via Titanium backup and every few months I make a new Nandroid backup. This gives me the best of both worlds. A full backup that I can get back to via Nandroid backup and little backups from Titanium backup if I choose to uninstall and re-install an individual app later on in the future.

Just a few other tips from my recent experiences. Since the problems I was having with NardROM... an entire night with no text msgs from my ole lady got me pretty worried and I learned it was issues with my flash or the rom with my phone so I wiped it out and went back to the stock ICS. I also flashed the keyboard fix and have noticed no problems. I did flash the tether fix too but it's not working for me at the moment so I'll play with it later. I'm also using my regular Captivate as a secondary phone/toy using google voice and wireless so if I'm not getting anything on one # during testing or usage I will notice it and get it on the other phone.
Also, as a long time GOSMS user I like to try out the various features but I must warn you stay away from, or have a backup plan on top of it, if you purchase the 180-day premium features and utilize the local backup. I'm not fond of having things backed up to a cloud so like you I back up all my phone stuff to my server and desktops at home but running raid 5 (paranoid much?). The problem I had is when I restored all my text from the cloud after a flash and noticed the new local backup feature in a GOSMS update I thought hey i can do away with the cloud and use this right!? Wrong. I deleted the cloud backup without double checking and on this last flash, attempted to restore roughly 20k+ messages from the Gosms local backup feature and it errored out or froze the phone EVERY time I tried. Frantically searching through everything I had, I learned that Titanium Backup does do a backup typically of the related data, I beleive the listed backup is SMS/APN/MMS or something similar. You have to enable writing to /system in Titanium's settings. There's a howto on xda I beleive and google searches on restoring it. Another thing, if you have numerous backups and are playing around and i.e. have just flashed, installed Titaniumbackup and want to backup something before you restore it from an older version, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CHANGED MAX # of BACKUPS FIRST, otherwise you have just overwritten your previous backup :crying:
*Correction* I'm using jayjayjoker2's debloated ICS 4.0.4 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1843001

ZeroHour064 said:
Just a few other tips from my recent experiences. Since the problems I was having with NardROM... an entire night with no text msgs from my ole lady got me pretty worried and I learned it was issues with my flash or the rom with my phone so I wiped it out and went back to the stock ICS. I also flashed the keyboard fix and have noticed no problems. I did flash the tether fix too but it's not working for me at the moment so I'll play with it later. I'm also using my regular Captivate as a secondary phone/toy using google voice and wireless so if I'm not getting anything on one # during testing or usage I will notice it and get it on the other phone.
Also, as a long time GOSMS user I like to try out the various features but I must warn you stay away from, or have a backup plan on top of it, if you purchase the 180-day premium features and utilize the local backup. I'm not fond of having things backed up to a cloud so like you I back up all my phone stuff to my server and desktops at home but running raid 5 (paranoid much?). The problem I had is when I restored all my text from the cloud after a flash and noticed the new local backup feature in a GOSMS update I thought hey i can do away with the cloud and use this right!? Wrong. I deleted the cloud backup without double checking and on this last flash, attempted to restore roughly 20k+ messages from the Gosms local backup feature and it errored out or froze the phone EVERY time I tried. Frantically searching through everything I had, I learned that Titanium Backup does do a backup typically of the related data, I beleive the listed backup is SMS/APN/MMS or something similar. You have to enable writing to /system in Titanium's settings. There's a howto on xda I beleive and google searches on restoring it. Another thing, if you have numerous backups and are playing around and i.e. have just flashed, installed Titaniumbackup and want to backup something before you restore it from an older version, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CHANGED MAX # of BACKUPS FIRST, otherwise you have just overwritten your previous backup :crying:
*Correction* I'm using jayjayjoker2's debloated ICS 4.0.4 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1843001
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great information thanks!!
The backups I am most worried about are all the system settings, app settings and data mostly. I am probably older than most folks here and I do not really text much except family and a few co-workers. I honestly never worried about backing up my SMS / MMS but I will check on my APNs because I had that problem on a Blackberry once. Email is where I store most important stuff and talk about paranoid I have multiple copies of my emails on different computers on different operating systems. 20 years working in storage will do that to you
I believe that if Google or Samsung even came up with a backup solution that did what Blackberry or Apple could do it would solve a lot and I probably would not even be working on this. Blackberry saved my bacon more than once with the complete backup they do in their clunky software and last year when my daughters iPhone would no longer power off, I was able to use iTunes to do a complete backup and she was up and running on a new phone in 15 mins exactly where she left off.
Thanks for the advice!

Related

Quick backup question from a converted windows mobile guy

I've searched for this and cant find the info I need so be easy on me, i'm new to android but loving it. On windows mobile when you backed up your device and then did a firmware upgrade you couldnt just do a restore because of the changed registry settings and other issues that went along with it, you had to restore the software 1 at a time all over again. On the evo I have backed up with Titanium backup and mybackuppro. When froyo comes out (or any other upgrade) , will these backup softwares restore your phone to the way it was before without your phone being all screwed up, or do you have the same issues as windows mobile, and also does it matter if the phone is rooted or not, on how the restore process works? Thanks for any help in advance
Those programs back stuff up like bookmarks, user dictionary and home screen setup just fine and restore things like that very well. System settings and such tend to not backup well. Most applications will also backup and restore just fine although some paid / protected apps may need to be downloaded again but for the most part they restore just fine.
Nandroid does a complete and full backup of everything for complete restores should something you flash not be too you liking. Once you finish all the root / recovery steps that option will be in your recovery menu (phone off, power on while holding down volume, select recovery).
Both have their uses. Nandroid takes you back in time to a different rom or kernel or whatever while a program like mybackup pro make it less painful to get all your stuff back if you want to try out another rom.
It should be noted that a Nandroid restore is only supposed to work on the same OS version that it was backed up on.
ramiss said:
It should be noted that a Nandroid restore is only supposed to work on the same OS version that it was backed up on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What?
Nandroid works regardless of what rom you had before or what you recently flashed. You can have fresh or damage control, nandroid and try froyo and go right back to the sense rom regardless if its a 2.1 or 2.2.
You can set up three plus different roms and use a new one each day. There is no limitation of using froyo (2.2) and going to a 2.1 rom like damage or an asop rom if we ever get one.
Just wipe cache and dalvik before running the nandroid or flashing a new rom that isn't a direct decedent (fresh .2 to .3)
Aridon said:
What?
Nandroid works regardless of what rom you had before or what you recently flashed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, but you can't go back to say 1.5. So there is a point at which too much change in the OS will cause issues with the restore. I agree that within a few minor version points it is fine but I wanted to be conservative in my answer.
Ok , I think I have a good grip on it now. When I upgrade to froyo I will have to use Titanium or mybackuppro to restore my apps(one by one, or batch method) and maybe some of my settings, I can then use my nandroid backup if I dont want froyo anymore and want to go back to my old stock 2.1 sprint rom and have an identical image to restore, is this correct? Thanks for all the help.

[Q] n00b rooting help please

Was wanting some more help with rooting my Evo for the first time. I know there are a lot of guides for n00bs out there but this stuff moves too fast and they are out of date.
Anyways, my phone is stock:
-Android 2.2
-Software number 3.29.651.5
-PRI version 1.77_003
-PRL version 60671
My intention was to use Unrevoked 3.21 but I read through ALOT of information from different sites and am thoroughly confused. Since my phone has all the recent OTA updates can it be rooted with this? And if so, I most definitely need to not take the Sprint OTA updates and wait for the "rooted" versions correct?
I like the Sense UI (but never used any others) and am happy with the phone the way it is. My hope is being able to use the hotspot feature and remove the bloatware from the phone.
Can anyone walk me through some of this (specific to my need)? As said before, I know there are already some n00b walkthroughs out there but most are too dated and some things apply and some don't which makes it very confusing.
Unrevoked 3.21 is the way to go. I just used it to root my replacement evo and it worked beautifully. Here is the thread for it, just read it and follow the relatively easy instructions and you won't have any issues.
Great.....thanks. This one is the most current I have seen.
I have read that if I take this route the phone could still be flashed back to a stock state in case warranty service (by Sprint) is needed. Am I still correct in assuming this?
Absolutely. It is very easy to unroot and return your phone to stock.
I'm going through the process now. However, my phone has rebooted and unrevoked3 has been sitting doing nothing for awhile. It still says:
Waiting for root...(safe to restart if this doesn't work)
Recovery image: ClockworkMod Recovery
This has been on there for around 5 min now. Do I re-run unrevoked at this point? Do I need to do anything with my phone? What happens if I re-run it and same thing happens?
Thanks.
That happened to me the first time I did it. It worked fine the second. You're ok to run it again.
Nice....it was a success the second time. Thanks.
Now all I have to do is find out what to do from here! lol
You can find info on anything that you might want to do by searching the forums here at xda and by using google. I recommend reading up as much as you can before you start deleting or flashing anything.
The best piece of advice I can give you is to do a nandroid backup before you modify ANYTHING on your phone. That means do one right now so if by chance you screw something up, you can always restore it and be back to where you started. If you don't know what a nandroid is or how to do one, use the search feature here or once again, google.
Good luck and welcome to the xda community
Sorry to jump in on the post but metalhead has been so helpful to how I would like to root. I have searched for nandroid, nandriod backup, and back up nand. None of theme gave a clear path for tutorial. If you could lead me in the right direction I think that this should be made a sticky.
Thanks in advance.
mainstang said:
Sorry to jump in on the post but metalhead has been so helpful to how I would like to root. I have searched for nandroid, nandriod backup, and back up nand. None of theme gave a clear path for tutorial. If you could lead me in the right direction I think that this should be made a sticky.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know what recovery you flashed? regardless, there are two ways to go about it. 1. turn your phone completely. hold Power and VOL - until the boot menu appears, use volume to move the selection and power to select. pick recovery. nandroid backup.
2. get Rom Manager(market). it has a one-touch button to reboot into recovery. easy peasy.
each recovery is different. Whether you have RA or Clockwork or some other third thing, you will get the same result, you just have to go about it differently.
good luck!!
I'm back post root! However, have some questions that I haven't been able to find answers to.
1) Am I OK to take my phone out of USB debug mode, or does it need to stay like that?
2) Can I re-install HTC sync and will it work with all ROMS?
3) I downloaded ROM Manager and Titanium Backup (both paid). When flashing a new ROM, all settings are gone as well as apps from the market. Is there a way to restore a rom without having to go back and re-download ROM Manager from the market then use it to restore? It takes to darn long to reboot the phone into recovery and restore that way.
Also with Titanium Backup, since it just backs up apps what is the point of doing a backup with it? If a complete image is saved by whichever backup you do, all apps in that image will be restored as well. When would anyone ever need to restore just the apps from before with the same rom?
4) Can I do a batch flash with a custom ROM and a custom theme? Or should I do the ROM first then the theme? I wouldn't think the theme can be applied until the ROM is flashed first. I'm not sure if ROM Manager will do this in a specific order.
Thanks.
CCallahan said:
I'm back post root! However, have some questions that I haven't been able to find answers to.
1) Am I OK to take my phone out of USB debug mode, or does it need to stay like that?
2) Can I re-install HTC sync and will it work with all ROMS?
3) I downloaded ROM Manager and Titanium Backup (both paid). When flashing a new ROM, all settings are gone as well as apps from the market. Is there a way to restore a rom without having to go back and re-download ROM Manager from the market then use it to restore? It takes to darn long to reboot the phone into recovery and restore that way.
Also with Titanium Backup, since it just backs up apps what is the point of doing a backup with it? If a complete image is saved by whichever backup you do, all apps in that image will be restored as well. When would anyone ever need to restore just the apps from before with the same rom?
4) Can I do a batch flash with a custom ROM and a custom theme? Or should I do the ROM first then the theme? I wouldn't think the theme can be applied until the ROM is flashed first. I'm not sure if ROM Manager will do this in a specific order.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) i would leave it enabled. it doesn't hurt anything and there are a lot of programs and modifications that use it.
2) in the half dozen roms i've tried, HTC sync does work. i am curious though. what are you using it for?
3) i'm not 100% clear on what you want, but i'll try my best. if all you're wanting to do is restore to a previous rom(for instance, if you flashed a rom to test it out and hate it) as long as you did a nandroid backup BEFORE flashing the rom, you can restore with all your settings and apps in place.
with TB i back up with it in such a way that it preserves all my settings and apps(including PLACEMENT of the apps on my docks and home screens) This is very useful. i'm not really sure why you don't see the significance in TitaniumBackup. it would be an absolute PAIN to restore all your apps from the market. or even better, REMEMBER which apps you had installed after a flash.
4) i would ALWAYS flash a rom first, reboot, check it out to make sure it loads properly. i know it takes a while but it's better to wait, then to try and flash everything at once and frag your phone. it's your phone of course, so do as you wish, but my advice is to flash the rom, reboot, then flash your theme.
good luck!!
Good stuff to know.....thanks.
In response to #2........I'm using HTC sync to sync my contacts/calendar between the phone and Outlook. I do not like using Google apps for this and HTC makes it easy to sync with this program.
In response to #3......You did answer my question. Just wanted to know if there was a faster way to recover (maybe a trick through ROM Manager) that I didn't know about.
To explain more about my Titanium Backup question......now that i think about it I guess if a custom ROM is flashed, one can re-download Titanium and restore all apps/locations on the new ROM setup, which would make things incredibly easier than downloading/placing/sizing apps individually. But, will it also restore widgets with the size/screen placement as well?
CCallahan said:
But, will it also restore widgets with the size/screen placement as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yessir, it did for me

[Q] How frequent do you make nandroid backups?

I seem to make one right before I decide to make a big change on the phone for example and rom update or theme update.
It's starting to be hard to keep up with the all of them. Anyone else got tips on how to manage them or if it's possible to make auto backups every week or so like titanium dose with apps?
I back up before making major changes. I only keep 1 or 2 recent backups on the SD card and will archive the rest onto my computer. I'll eventually clear them out, but there are a few worth keeping- such as the stock, rooted rom.
I just keep a fresh back up of the phone in stock with nothing on it besides stock apps and crap. Auto sync takes care of my contacts and I could care less about what texts I lose, most of my apps are on the sd card so I just load what I want back.
dietotherhythm said:
Auto sync takes care of my contacts and I could care less about what texts I lose
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I don't care much about losing any texts. I have it set up for auto delete at 50 anyway. I theme my phone on a daily basis. So I usually backup when I'm about to push a file into the framework. If the push was successful (phone doesn't go into a boot loop) then I delete the old backup I just made and backup again with the changes I just made. Otherwise, I also backup when flashing a ROM (obviously).
I back up when I flash a new ROM, a new theme, or make tweaks to certain files (like the anti-data-throttling technique). Beyond that, I have no need.
Sent from a Western Union telegram.
How do ya geniuses do the nandroid backups?
I've been tempted to flash cyanogen mod, but I see so many glitches, and since I'm no expert at this, I kinda doubt to do the rom flashing to my phone.
EdWRX said:
How do ya geniuses do the nandroid backups?
I've been tempted to flash cyanogen mod, but I see so many glitches, and since I'm no expert at this, I kinda doubt to do the rom flashing to my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rom flashing is easy, use Rom manager from market to flash clockwork(after rooting if not already there) and then download cyanogenmod as it is awesome stable right now and flash via rom manager.
it should then ask if you want to back up(nandroid) and/or wipe, check both options and you will have a backup
on original topic i have pro version of rom manager and so i have it set to make a backup every 4 days(but i don't delete very frequently and my 8GB sd card is not nearly big enough)
ive got my stock rom backed up from when i first rooted just incase i ever want to go back, Cm6.1 and then the current virtuous rom that im using. i really do need to clean my SD card up though, haha.
Like most, I made a nandroid as soon as I'd finished rooting, and then I keep one copy of my current ROM (Virtuous). If I'm going to make a major change or upgrade, I'll make a backup and keep it around for a few days, till I'm sure there are no bugs, and then keep the newer and delete the older backup. At most I have 3 backups, but normally I only have 2.
Honestly.... Never.
There's nothing a Nandroid can fix that flashing a new rom cant And the new rom gives you a nice change
once a week!

[Q] Strange flashing woes?

Just to preface, I have been flashing ROMs for 2 years now, and am by no means new to the game. However, I'll be the first to say that I'm not immune to making stupid mistakes. So if I'm being stupid, you can tell me and not hurt my feelings
I will give a history of what I have done with my phone since Monday after I picked it up, and some quirks I have noticed.
- Set up my phone, accounts etc
- Let Google backup/restore download and install all of my apps
- Installed OTA to ALJC
- Installed Note2 Toolkit on my PC, drivers load, adb recognizes.
- Rooted & Installed CWM recovery
- Flashed stock de-odexed ALJC
- Installed 5x6 launcher & ALJC 4x1 reboot options (rebooted and proceed to setup my homescreens, icons, etc.) (I noticed when trying to flash items from "internal" sd card, it says there are not any
- inserted my SD Card from my OG Epic (Titanium backups in place)
- Restored text messages from .xml file via TB
- None of the games I wanted to transfer data from would run after restoring data from my TB backups, had to clear data and apps run fine, except for NBA Jam (guessing b/c they were from a CM10 ROM and a different device)
-Got all my apps setup, wiped all the bogus data I got from my prior TB backups. After playing with the phone, running apps for several hours, did a full Titanium backup of my phone
- Booted to CWM & Saved a nandroid backup to external SD Card
- Flashed (dirty) ULE 1.0 ALJC Rom (I thought by flashing dirty, it would preserve all my data, apps, etc. = I was wrong)
- Attempted to restore all of my Titanium backups (only ~60% would restore...still trying to figure this out).
- Attempted to restore the backed up 5x6 launcher (with my screens/icons setup intact) via TB. This kind of worked, it definitely changed the icon setup, but it was NOT 5x6, and it did not have my previous layout (probably b/c it was trying to fit a 5x6 on a 4x4).
- Figured that the dirty flash screwed things up, so I would restore my nandroid and go back to square one, where I had stock deodexed with 5x6 & reboot options, and launcher screens intact. So I booted CWM and restored that nandroid.
- After restoring and rebooting, I'm not sure if anything happened at all. I had a 4x4 launcher, no reboot options, and several of my apps were missing (particularly, the ones that would not restore from TB before)
- Figured I aught to factory reset and then restore, same result as above.
- Currently downloading stock ALJ1 tar so I can start all over again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is long-winded, but I wanted to put it all out there in case I am doing something categorically wrong with my Note II, so I do not replicate this problem. It has always been the case that a nandroid backup gets me back EXACTLY where I was when I made it (on both my Touchpad & Epic). For whatever reason, this did not happen in this case, even after a factory reset/wipe.
Perhaps CWM isn't working properly? Perhaps I need to try TWRP so that I can manually wipe /system (as far as I can tell you can't manually do that in CWM, but if I understand correctly, this is done when you flash a ROM or restore a nandroid).
Am I doing something wrong? Also, why won't CWM see any of the files I downloaded to the internal memory? Several times now I have booted CWM and when I try to flashing things I downloaded, I have to reboot and move them to my external SD card so that CWM can see them.
Are there settings that are being saved to my external SD card that are causing problems (I highly doubt it)?
Thanks to any and all suggestions/guidance/advice.
Looking forward to learning more and more about these awesome devices.
MeetFace said:
Just to preface, I have been flashing ROMs for 2 years now, and am by no means new to the game. However, I'll be the first to say that I'm not immune to making stupid mistakes. So if I'm being stupid, you can tell me and not hurt my feelings
I will give a history of what I have done with my phone since Monday after I picked it up, and some quirks I have noticed.
I know this is long-winded, but I wanted to put it all out there in case I am doing something categorically wrong with my Note II, so I do not replicate this problem. It has always been the case that a nandroid backup gets me back EXACTLY where I was when I made it (on both my Touchpad & Epic). For whatever reason, this did not happen in this case, even after a factory reset/wipe.
Perhaps CWM isn't working properly? Perhaps I need to try TWRP so that I can manually wipe /system (as far as I can tell you can't manually do that in CWM, but if I understand correctly, this is done when you flash a ROM or restore a nandroid).
Am I doing something wrong? Also, why won't CWM see any of the files I downloaded to the internal memory? Several times now I have booted CWM and when I try to flashing things I downloaded, I have to reboot and move them to my external SD card so that CWM can see them.
Are there settings that are being saved to my external SD card that are causing problems (I highly doubt it)?
Thanks to any and all suggestions/guidance/advice.
Looking forward to learning more and more about these awesome devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I personally use twrp and have had no issues so I cannot speak on your nandroid issues...I do know however that in twrp after selecting internal or external sd card, you sometimes have to manually navigate to the respective sdcard...as for your TB not seeing your back ups from your prior device, go to preferences< backup location< detect and select scan whole device
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
Just to clarify your remarks to avoid confusion. I can clearly see my TB backups.
I did have to go and do those steps first. About only half of them would restore though. Kind of odd. Maybe some data corruption? Didn't matter if I did them one at a time or during batch mode. Also didn't matter which of the 3 processing modes I selected in TB. Once one of the offending backups was being processed in batch mode, the restore process would hang until I force stopped TB or rebooted.
How much free storage does your internal sd have remaining? I ask because my wife's s3 would do the same when it was below 1gig
Multiple GB, probably 7 or 8. I store everything on my external, music, pics, etc. Haven't had that much chance to fill up the internal yet =]
I don't know. ..Very irritating isn't
It is indeed. But that's the risk of being a flashaholic
...and of being a first-mover on a brand new device =]
Beginning to wonder if me rooting with SuperSu, and then flashing (dirty) ULE which uses superuser, may have caused any problems. Perhaps binaries were conflicting?
MeetFace said:
Just to clarify your remarks to avoid confusion. I can clearly see my TB backups.
I did have to go and do those steps first. About only half of them would restore though. Kind of odd. Maybe some data corruption? Didn't matter if I did them one at a time or during batch mode. Also didn't matter which of the 3 processing modes I selected in TB. Once one of the offending backups was being processed in batch mode, the restore process would hang until I force stopped TB or rebooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh okay I see what you mean now...I have no idea whats going on there lol. ..I hope you can somehow get that figured out because I know how much it sucks to lose app Data
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
I am really puzzled now, I just odined back to stock and then up through all rooting/etc to get to ULE again. Totally wiped everything. TB is still giving me fits. I'm assuming they backups were bad. Half work, half don't.
I was able to restore apps from a nandroid I made on my OG Epic a month ago. So that's helpful. I'm going to delete all my TB backups once I get everything situated and start fresh (possibly b/c I made backups while on an odexed ROM and restored them on a deodexed ROM?).
I think I'm going to stick with TWRP for now. I don't know if CWM was working properly at all, and TWRP has a few more features. TB wasn't able to see a single app to restore from the two CWM nandroids I made. Not sure what's up with that.
I was going to mention the codex stuff but it really shouldn't matter as you are backing up the data portion not the system. Still you might have a look at setting/storage. USB debug on ...all that jazz
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

[Q] Questions about rooting/custom ROMS from a new user

Hi i have a t999 samsung s3 (not rooted). I am quite new to this whole rooting/development scene. I really want to try out 4.2.2.
Some questions i have are:
- After i root my phone and put a custom rom does it wipe my phone or does it leave all the data on (apps, personal settings and what not)? If yes, is there a way to backup everything and restore it after i have put on a custom rom so that everything i had is back to normal?
- Also which rom has good battery life? I have heard some roms are really good on the battery life compared to the stock version.
Thanks a lot for the help
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seifer699 said:
Hi i have a t999 samsung s3 (not rooted). I am quite new to this whole rooting/development scene. I really want to try out 4.2.2.
Some questions i have are:
- After i root my phone and put a custom rom does it wipe my phone or does it leave all the data on (apps, personal settings and what not)? If yes, is there a way to backup everything and restore it after i have put on a custom rom so that everything i had is back to normal?
- Also which rom has good battery life? I have heard some roms are really good on the battery life compared to the stock version.
Thanks a lot for the help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your data will be deleted. you can backup apps with AppMonster Free or Titanium Backup from Play Store.
a good and stable 4.2.2 rom is http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2176988
pluginre said:
your data will be deleted. you can backup apps with AppMonster Free or Titanium Backup from Play Store.
a good and stable 4.2.2 rom is http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2176988
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^This^
To add to that, battery.... Depends... On several factors including, but not limited to ROM, kernal, use, temp, this that, your pretty neighbor who's running out side. So, your best bet is to and see what will work better for you.
However, since you're new to this, there's somethings I want to say before you start:
-Make sure you have a T-Mobile phone before rooting and flashing using methods and ROMs here.
-Beware of possible lost IMEI when flashing. It's completely random. Go ahead and make a backup of your IMEI: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1801997
- If you go from a 4.2 ROM back to a 4.1, you could randomly break your GPS. If that happens: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2211690
So just wanted to add a couple of things more concise.
Yes you will lose your data when you originally root your phone, however there are benefits to rooting and data in the long run. I highly recommend purchasing titanium backup pro. This will allow you to always have backups of your apps and data stored on the phone. It also allows for cloud storage so lets say your sd card and phone suddenly get fried, no worries once you get your new phone and root it install titanium from the play store and then restore your data from cloud storage.
As far as battery life goes this is dependent on what ROM you choose and what kernel. If you aren't familiar with kernels the less techie way to describe them is they kind of dictate what speeds your phone will run at (this is a very one sided description). Some kernels are designed to be overclocked, so what that means is your going to get faster speeds, the downside to that is faster speeds mean more heat generating of your processor because it needs more energy. More energy means more battery usage, which means a faster dying battery. Some kernels on the other hand are designed to actually be underclocked, which means longer battery. Then there are even kernels that underclock when the phone is asleep and know to overclock when its running a game or something. Long story short on battery, it really depends.
And as far as you rooting your phone, take the time to learn about the process first. Watch multiple you tube videos from different methods. At this point the phone has been out long enough everything is scripted basically so you just pick the right choice and your phone gets rooted, but it is still imperative you familiarize yourself with the process. Words such as adb, recovery, terminal emulator, odin, your going to want to know. Finally if you have any questions ask. Some people will be like www.google.com, but most of us all remember we were there once and needed help also.
I rooted my s3 last weekend. Quite easy, first time I ever rooted. Currently running Wicked 9.1 absolutely love it
Once rooted, download Rom manager and titanium backup. Titanium saves all your data when you flash new Roms
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
thank you all for the insight
i ended up rooting my t999. but when i go into recovery i still see stock recovery not clockworkmod. does anyone know why this happens?
also in titanium backup which backup do i need to do so everything will be exactly the same when i restore after i flash custom rom?
I had that issue.
Download ROM manager from the playstore. Then download clockworkmod from it. Then from the app go into clockworkmod.
Once there, if I'm not mistaken, reboot. It'll ask you something and hit yes. Basically what's happening is when you try to activate CWM the phone isn't letting it register but this option will override that and you'll be good to go.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 03:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------
For titanium, I back up all user apps and data. When you flash a new rom, only recover apps you've downloaded. Select one by one just to make sure you don't download any system apps.
System apps with a custom rom can brick your device.
When you download a new rom, always read the opening posts for instructions and make sure it's a rom meant for your device.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
seifer699 said:
thank you all for the insight
i ended up rooting my t999. but when i go into recovery i still see stock recovery not clockworkmod. does anyone know why this happens?
also in titanium backup which backup do i need to do so everything will be exactly the same when i restore after i flash custom rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A couple of quick questions.
1. What rooting method did you use. I ask this because I would refrain from using CWM. CWM used to be the standard, in fact I have always used it until rooting my s3 last week. A lot of the developers are now using TWM recovery. I don't know the reasons behind it or if it will matter but it seems like twm may be more friendly with the s3. One huge benefit of twm recovery is that it is touch screen by default which is a lot easier to use. To get the touchscreen version of CWM you either have to pay for it, or no how to flash it manually usinig adb (this will probably be somewhat confusing for you but there are step by step instructions for it).
2. As far as titanium back up goes. Ill give you a quick run down of how it functions. For starters the basic and simplest way to make a backup is press the menu sofkey, batch options, then under backup just click on 'run' to the left of backup all user apps. From here the defualt is all apps will be selected. if you want all your apps backuped just hit the green check mark at the top right. If there is an app you don't want just uncheck it then hit the check mark in the top right.
As far as recovery of apps goes do the same thing (menu, batch options) but this time go down to restore and restore all aps with data (or missing apps with data depending which option you need).
Now for system apps, I do not recommend you using the batch operations for saving system apps. The truth is you never really want to restore system apps onto a new ROM. There are certain system apps that usually can be restored onto a different ROM or os version such as bluetooth pairings, your sms messages, and wifi passwords. Even restoring these can cause problems so what you want to do is restore them individually, restart the phone, and then make sure everything is working as it should be. Send me a private message if you want and Ill go into detail how to go about doing this.

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