Develop Bugs

Galaxy Nexus Toolkit Backup

Hello again.
Since I am under 10 posts and not allowed to participate in the relevant thread plus searching didn't yield any results I am posting here.
After one month of using my nexus I want to play with it and try some custom things that all people talk so much about.Fact is I first want to backup current state where everything works fine in case something goes wrong.
I 've already backed up my apps and their data with Titanium Backup.
Now I need current OS state bootloader, etc.Am I right to believe this is the NANDROID backup? Is this the backup that can bring the phone back to its current state?
Second thing is that the Galaxy Nexus Toolkit v7.8.0 I am using recommends backing up the EFS partition.Did some research that revealed this hidden partition is about the IMEI - I can't understand how such a valuable data isn't hardcoded inside the phone.But nevertheless I would like to know where are those backups (NANDROID and ESF partition) stored (already checked backups folder in toolkit).
My phone's current state is: unlocked bootloader, CWM recovery, rooted and on stock 4.1.1.No mods or any other custom file.
Another question regarding the CWM recovery.How is it possible to go back to the stock recovery? By flashing the stock ROM?
Also from GN Toolkit I flashed CWM Touch but after trying an update through CWM ROM Manager I got the manual version (both 6.0.1).Can I reflash the touch version from Toolkit?
Sorry if some of those questions sound silly but I am new in Android and prefer the safe path.
Thank you in advance.

TR-909 said:
Hello again.
Since I am under 10 posts and not allowed to participate in the relevant thread plus searching didn't yield any results I am posting here.
After one month of using my nexus I want to play with it and try some custom things that all people talk so much about.Fact is I first want to backup current state where everything works fine in case something goes wrong.
I 've already backed up my apps and their data with Titanium Backup.
Now I need current OS state bootloader, etc.Am I right to believe this is the NANDROID backup? Is this the backup that can bring the phone back to its current state?
Second thing is that the Galaxy Nexus Toolkit v7.8.0 I am using recommends backing up the EFS partition.Did some research that revealed this hidden partition is about the IMEI - I can't understand how such a valuable data isn't hardcoded inside the phone.But nevertheless I would like to know where are those backups (NANDROID and ESF partition) stored (already checked backups folder in toolkit).
My phone's current state is: unlocked bootloader, CWM recovery, rooted and on stock 4.1.1.No mods or any other custom file.
Another question regarding the CWM recovery.How is it possible to go back to the stock recovery? By flashing the stock ROM?
Also from GN Toolkit I flashed CWM Touch but after trying an update through CWM ROM Manager I got the manual version (both 6.0.1).Can I reflash the touch version from Toolkit?
Sorry if some of those questions sound silly but I am new in Android and prefer the safe path.
Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
toolkit is not a safe path for you.
read these:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1812959
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1626895
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1529058
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420351
learn how to troubleshoot and search, you'll be a whole lot happier. don't use toolkits.
TR-909 said:
Now I need current OS state bootloader, etc.Am I right to believe this is the NANDROID backup? Is this the backup that can bring the phone back to its current state?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nandroid doesn't backup the bootloader. if you ever need to go back to a specific bootloader version (which you won't), it is available online.

bk201doesntexist said:
toolkit is not a safe path for you.
read these:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1812959
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1626895
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1529058
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420351
learn how to troubleshoot and search, you'll be a whole lot happier. don't use toolkits.
nandroid doesn't backup the bootloader. if you ever need to go back to a specific bootloader version (which you won't), it is available online.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a lot of reading.
Anyway thanks for pointing me to those threads (I don't mind reading hehe) but still I don't understand why toolkit is so bad.In my view the toolkit just automates a set of commands which otherwise I would have to give through a command prompt.Only good thing I can find avoiding a toolkit, is getting a deeper knowledge on the subject but maybe the risks of doing something wrong are increased (say a typo)?
Anyway let me read those and I may be back.

TR-909 said:
That's a lot of reading.
Anyway thanks for pointing me to those threads (I don't mind reading hehe) but still I don't understand why toolkit is so bad.In my view the toolkit just automates a set of commands which otherwise I would have to give through a command prompt.Only good thing I can find avoiding a toolkit, is getting a deeper knowledge on the subject but maybe the risks of doing something wrong are increased (say a typo)?
Anyway let me read those and I may be back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Toolkit is a automated set of other people's command, programme are coded by humans and human errors are bound to happen, not to mention if something went wrong somewhere, you won't know what went wrong. By doing the steps yourself, you will know exactly what went wrong, and it will simplify things should you have to ask questions here, which you most likely don't have to once you know how to use adb and fastboot, trust me.

Typos while doing your commands won't hurt because it simply will fail and not do anything. Immediately you will know you typed something incorrectly and know you have to do it again. With the kit you will not know at which step it failed so figuring out something will become a task. Doing it yourself sounds like it's longer and difficult but once you do it you will see how easy and simple it is plus you will understand what you did and why.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

TR-909 said:
[snip]
Now I need current OS state bootloader, etc.Am I right to believe this is the NANDROID backup? Is this the backup that can bring the phone back to its current state?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and yes.
TR-909 said:
Second thing is that the Galaxy Nexus Toolkit v7.8.0 I am using recommends backing up the EFS partition.Did some research that revealed this hidden partition is about the IMEI - I can't understand how such a valuable data isn't hardcoded inside the phone.But nevertheless I would like to know where are those backups (NANDROID and ESF partition) stored (already checked backups folder in toolkit).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I won't comment on the toolkit, but nandroid backups are stored in /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup/ on your device.
As for the efs partition, you could back it up, but I don't really see what the necessity of it is. That partition is never written to by any ROM (stock or otherwise), so the only way it will get messed up is if you do something to it.
If you want to back it up on your device, just open a terminal window and type:
su
dd if=/dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.0/by-name/efs of=/sdcard/efs.img
That will store it in /sdcard, and then just copy it off your device.
TR-909 said:
Another question regarding the CWM recovery.How is it possible to go back to the stock recovery? By flashing the stock ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just pull the recovery.img file out of the version of the stock factory image that you are currently using, place it in the same directory where you have your fastboot.exe file, reboot your device into fastboot mode and type:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
Or, just save it to /sdcard on your device and type the following in a terminal:
su
dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.0/by-name/recovery
TR-909 said:
Also from GN Toolkit I flashed CWM Touch but after trying an update through CWM ROM Manager I got the manual version (both 6.0.1).Can I reflash the touch version from Toolkit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't help you out with any toolkit, sorry.

Hello efrant.
Seems you are the n00bs hero in here! I was reading your FAQ and threw some basic ADB commands through cmd to see how it feels ,lol.
Well reading made some good, I backed up through CWM but the backup size baffles me - only 21.4MB in total.Is this normal?
Also took a fresh backup with Titanium for all apps and data - this is a lot bigger 728MB in total.Still Storage (in Settings) reports that applications and their data hold 3.54GB.Is there some kind of ultra compression involved?
As for the stock bootloader I found that image (recovery-stock-jro03c-maguro) which I think is for my GN (GSM).I am asking in case something bad happens and go for a warranty claim.In that case I believe I 'll need to flash the stock bootloader, stock ROM and finally lock the bootloader.
As for the EFS partition is it impossible to be harmed? Say File System corruption, sdcard bad blocks, etc?
It's ok.I clearly understand your position on the toolkit and any similar programms out there.It's just they are so "convenient" and "time savers".Still you 're all right that most of the time you do not understand what you are doing when using toolkits.
Thanks to all of you for your great help. :good:
PS - to test my progress I am going to flash stock recovery through flashboot.I just hope I won't mess it up. :fingers-crossed:

To clear a few things:
TR-909 said:
As for the stock bootloader I found that image (recovery-stock-jro03c-maguro) which I think is for my GN (GSM).I am asking in case something bad happens and go for a warranty claim.In that case I believe I 'll need to flash the stock bootloader, stock ROM and finally lock the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
we don't have any custom bootloaders, as of yet.
TR-909 said:
As for the EFS partition is it impossible to be harmed? Say File System corruption, sdcard bad blocks, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not impossible, but many many users never had any issues. to be on the safe side, back it up.
TR-909 said:
It's ok.I clearly understand your position on the toolkit and any similar programms out there.It's just they are so "convenient" and "time savers".Still you 're all right that most of the time you do not understand what you are doing when using toolkits.
Thanks to all of you for your great help. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
glad you understand. just because something is convenient doesn't mean that it's the best for you.
TR-909 said:
PS - to test my progress I am going to flash stock recovery through flashboot.I just hope I won't mess it up. :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
easy. you can't fail with fastboot. like said before, if you type it wrong, it won't go through. :good:
'fastboot flash recovery recovery.img'
done.

Regarding the nandroid, copy off the whole clockworkmod folder.
Will the next nexus have a longer screen?

@bk201doesntexist: yes you 're right I was reffering to the stock recovery image.Thanks for correcting me
@Mach3.2: I 've read just the backup folder is needed (the one with the date and time).
For the sake of learning, I started in ADB then:
adb devices : to check I am online
adb reboot-bootloader: to get into fastboot
fastboot devices: check again status
and then
fastboot recovery recovery-CWM-touch-6.0.1-maguro
blah...
blah...
blah...
Finished and voila CWM touch recovery installed. :victory:
I am going to try with stock recovery but I am trying to find an official source to download it (if any).
EDIT: I see the only way to find the original recovery img is to extract it from the official ROM.So I am downloading from Google a .tgz and will continue from there.
Any comments for my backup sizes?
Now with my backups in hand what is the possible way to verify them? In theory with nandroid (from CWM recovery) and Titanium, I can restore phone in today's state.Right or wrong?
I am thinking of going a bit further flashing the stock ROM again (wiping everything) and then recovering from the backup archives as my next learning exercise.I should obviously backup photos, music, etc but I was wondering if SMS history is taken care by Nandroid or have to use a seperate application.Contacts are in google's server so np on that.
Thanks again.

TR-909 said:
[snip]
Well reading made some good, I backed up through CWM but the backup size baffles me - only 21.4MB in total.Is this normal?
Also took a fresh backup with Titanium for all apps and data - this is a lot bigger 728MB in total.Still Storage (in Settings) reports that applications and their data hold 3.54GB.Is there some kind of ultra compression involved?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are using the 6-series CWM, it does backups a little differently (incrementally), and stores the backup in two locations in /sdcard/clockworkmod. I personally use 5.5.0.2, which does a full backup and stores it in one location.
TR-909 said:
As for the stock bootloader I found that image (recovery-stock-jro03c-maguro) which I think is for my GN (GSM).I am asking in case something bad happens and go for a warranty claim.In that case I believe I 'll need to flash the stock bootloader, stock ROM and finally lock the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As was mentioned above, all bootloaders available are stock bootloaders. A list can be found in the bootloader thread (link in my signature).
TR-909 said:
As for the EFS partition is it impossible to be harmed? Say File System corruption, sdcard bad blocks, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But if you have bad blocks in the efs partition, you would probably need to get a new device, at which point you have no need for the backup, no? But I guess yes, better safe than sorry.
TR-909 said:
In theory with nandroid (from CWM recovery) and Titanium, I can restore phone in today's state.Right or wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With a nandroid alone you can return to today's state.
TR-909 said:
I am thinking of going a bit further flashing the stock ROM again (wiping everything) and then recovering from the backup archives as my next learning exercise.I should obviously backup photos, music, etc but I was wondering if SMS history is taken care by Nandroid or have to use a seperate application.Contacts are in google's server so np on that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wiping from CWM does not wipe the data you have on /sdcard, so no need to backup photos, music, etc.
SMS will get wiped, but both Titanium and a nandroid will back them up. However, you can use a third-party app (there are many of them) to do it as well, which is simpler actually.

TR-909 said:
@bk201doesntexist: yes you 're right I was reffering to the stock recovery image.Thanks for correcting me
@Mach3.2: I 've read just the backup folder is needed (the one with the date and time).
For the sake of learning, I started in ADB then:
adb devices : to check I am online
adb reboot-bootloader: to get into fastboot
fastboot devices: check again status
and then
fastboot recovery recovery-CWM-touch-6.0.1-maguro
blah...
blah...
blah...
Finished and voila CWM touch recovery installed. :victory:
I am going to try with stock recovery but I am trying to find an official source to download it (if any).
EDIT: I see the only way to find the original recovery img is to extract it from the official ROM.So I am downloading from Google a .tgz and will continue from there.
Any comments for my backup sizes?
Now with my backups in hand what is the possible way to verify them? In theory with nandroid (from CWM recovery) and Titanium, I can restore phone in today's state.Right or wrong?
I am thinking of going a bit further flashing the stock ROM again (wiping everything) and then recovering from the backup archives as my next learning exercise.I should obviously backup photos, music, etc but I was wondering if SMS history is taken care by Nandroid or have to use a seperate application.Contacts are in google's server so np on that.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The backup is just a shell, it's backed up in blobs, so you will need to copy the whole thing off.

You 're both right that in that the CWM recovery "image" is incremental and the base backup is the blops folder - now the total size is 1.75GB which is logical.
@efrant: thanks for clarifying on backup now it all starts making sense.I 've read Titanium Backup can pull individual files (may I call it selective restore) from a Nandroid backup, say a single app and its data.If that is so then the Titanium Backup could be used as a reserve app and that could save me some precious space.
efrant said:
SMS will get wiped, but both Titanium and a nandroid will back them up. However, you can use a third-party app (there are many of them) to do it as well, which is simpler actually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I prefer to use less apps for doing the job so if Nandroid has the data it is fine with me.I hope it isn't that complicated to pull the data out.
@Mach3.2: You were right, my bad.The article I read was about CWM recovery 5.5.0.2 so now I copied the whole thing on PC. :good:

TR-909 said:
[snip]
I prefer to use less apps for doing the job so if Nandroid has the data it is fine with me.I hope it isn't that complicated to pull the data out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue is that SMS's are stored as data for a specific system app (I can't remember which one at the moment). If you change ROMs, it is generally not a good idea to restore system apps or system app data via Titanium Backup, as those apps/data could cause some instability. You may get lucky, you may not.

efrant said:
The issue is that SMS's are stored as data for a specific system app (I can't remember which one at the moment). If you change ROMs, it is generally not a good idea to restore system apps or system app data via Titanium Backup, as those apps/data could cause some instability. You may get lucky, you may not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Point taken.:good:
A bit more on the backup subject...
As I can see CWM recovery backups boot image, recovery image and the /system partition.I also saw in one of efrant's posts about different bootloaders but honestly I fail to comprehend the need for flashing a bootloader.
*In your "convert to latest yakju" post you recommend flashing it "5) Optional (NOT optional for n00bs) -- Flash the bootloader: fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-maguro-primela03.img (or whatever the name of the bootloader image that you downloaded)."
** Also the radio partition is a mystery so far.And I 've read a lot of guys talking of better connectivity (be it GSM, 3G, WiFi) through flashing custom (?) radio images.On list to be explored...
The recovery image is pretty straight and the system partition is the one with the OS - now all this can't be 1.7GB unless it backups the userdata partition too.
EDIT: It seems it also backups the data folder (hence the apps) so the size now makes sense.I reverted to 5.5.0.2 because incremental backup is fast and slick but brings two issues: first the "blops structure" gives me problems when I want to transfer those thousands of files via MTP and second it is much more practical when I want to backup completely different "builds" (that is my guess).
Also in between flashing ROMs a standard procedure is recommended about wiping data, clearing dalvik cache, etc
Could you please give me in details the series of tasks needed (or point me to a thread) for properly preparing a custom ROM installation when unlocked and rooted?
About restoration in the "new enviroment" I read this:
"If your bootloader is unlocked: yes, you can root (if you haven't done it already) and use TiB to backup apps + app data. Installing a ROM will not wipe your /sdcard. It's always a good idea to back it up though before a flash. Use TiB to restore apps + appdata to your new ROM. Be careful with system apps and settings, restoring such data can lead to issues."
Am I right in that "illegal" system apps are those painted with red colour in TiB?
Final steps I am going to backup SMS history and find a custom ROM to install.Any ROM recommendations for a "novice user" are welcome...
Off Topic: what would be the adb commands to push/pull folders (or files) from /sdcard to PC (eg. \sdcard\clockworkmod --> C:/Nexus) .Right now I am doing MTP transfers but would prefer the "adb way" if possible.
Thanks a lot for your support and sharing of knowledge!
PS - So much reading!

Wow, that's a lot of questions for one post! I'll try to tackle some of them.
TR-909 said:
As I can see CWM recovery backups boot image, recovery image and the /system partition.I also saw in one of efrant's posts about different bootloaders but honestly I fail to comprehend the need for flashing a bootloader.
*In your "convert to latest yakju" post you recommend flashing it "5) Optional (NOT optional for n00bs) -- Flash the bootloader: fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-maguro-primela03.img (or whatever the name of the bootloader image that you downloaded)."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think anyone knows what changes are in each new bootloader revision (given that they are closed source), but some have had issues with running Jelly Bean on bootloaders older than LA03. I guess "newer is better" holds true in this case.
TR-909 said:
** Also the radio partition is a mystery so far.And I 've read a lot of guys talking of better connectivity (be it GSM, 3G, WiFi) through flashing custom (?) radio images.On list to be explored...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, no one know what changes are made in each radio revision. I personally have not noticed much difference among a lot of the radios, but others have said otherwise. (And no, there are no "custom" radios. All radios are stock -- just from different versions of Android. (A list of radios can be found in the radio link in my signature.)
TR-909 said:
The recovery image is pretty straight and the system partition is the one with the OS - now all this can't be 1.7GB unless it backups the userdata partition too.
EDIT: It seems it also backups the data folder (hence the apps) so the size now makes sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, it backs up the cache, boot, recovery and system partitions, and everything in /data except /data/media (which is /sdcard).
TR-909 said:
I reverted to 5.5.0.2 because incremental backup is fast and slick but brings two issues: first the "blops structure" gives me problems when I want to transfer those thousands of files via MTP and second it is much more practical when I want to backup completely different "builds" (that is my guess).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also like 5.5.0.2. I found it to be the most compatible, i.e., it has no issues flashing anything (that I have tried anyway), whereas other versions have issues with certain things.
And I personally wouldn't use MTP to transfer files -- it is flaky at best. ADB is much more stable.
TR-909 said:
Also in between flashing ROMs a standard procedure is recommended about wiping data, clearing dalvik cache, etc
Could you please give me in details the series of tasks needed (or point me to a thread) for properly preparing a custom ROM installation when unlocked and rooted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is not much to do:
1) Download ROM to /sdcard
2) Reboot into recovery
3) Nandroid
4) Wipe /data and /cache
5) Flash ROM
6) Reboot
TR-909 said:
About restoration in the "new enviroment" I read this:
"If your bootloader is unlocked: yes, you can root (if you haven't done it already) and use TiB to backup apps + app data. Installing a ROM will not wipe your /sdcard. It's always a good idea to back it up though before a flash. Use TiB to restore apps + appdata to your new ROM. Be careful with system apps and settings, restoring such data can lead to issues."
Am I right in that "illegal" system apps are those painted with red colour in TiB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so. I haven't use TB in a while, so I just checked and it looks like you are correct -- red.
TR-909 said:
Off Topic: what would be the adb commands to push/pull folders (or files) from /sdcard to PC (eg. \sdcard\clockworkmod --> C:/Nexus) .Right now I am doing MTP transfers but would prefer the "adb way" if possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a read of the "basics" link in my signature. ADB is covered there.

Wow that's some great answers and a big motive for me to continue "digging".:good:
I will leave you in peace for the time being as here it's about to dawn.
Big thanks and have a nice day.
PS - To be continued...

There is a article on the main xda site about running a FTP server on your phone, maybe that will transfer the blobs faster than MTP.

Mach3.2 said:
There is a article on the main xda site about running a FTP server on your phone, maybe that will transfer the blobs faster than MTP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mach3.2.
FTP wouldn't help because WLAN (802.11g) can't beat USB 2.0 speeds.In fact it is quite slow for such file sizes.You 're right though in that through ES File Explorer I can send the whole Clockworkmod folder (and the blobs) normally to my PC without the "invisible files" issue I encountered with Windows Explorer and MTP.
Thanks for suggestion!

TR-909 said:
Hey mach3.2.
FTP wouldn't help because WLAN (802.11g) can't beat USB 2.0 speeds.In fact it is quite slow for such file sizes.You 're right though in that through ES File Explorer I can send the whole Clockworkmod folder (and the blobs) normally to my PC without the "invisible files" issue I encountered with Windows Explorer and MTP.
Thanks for suggestion!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With MTP, copying using FTP may just be faster
And just to mention, there's 802.11N on you devices, although it's only single stream w/ 1 antenna..

[Q] First Post, Help!

A couple of things. I've been reading xda for a while but am by no means anything other than a "noob" I know just enough to be dangerous to my phone, but so far only soft bricked my old cappy once. So a very grateful thank you to all the hard work you guys put in to pushing the development.
As a somewhat experienced noob I can say first hand that reading through all these threads and posts that lead in a thousand directions is pretty hard and time consuming. That's why all the "what ROM is best" threads. I sounds kind of selfish coming from someone who has contributed nothing other than traffic to xda, but a section for comparing different ROMs would stop most of those posts.
Now for the questions. Is there a way to put a .zip of the stock ROM on my sd card so I can go back to stock anytime I want? I know I can flash back to stock with odin, but can it be done thru the recovery console? I would like to be able to have several ROMs saved on sd and use recovery to flash between them. I'm not real happy with ROMManager... is freezes all the time, and I've not one time been able to flash with it.
Thanks

Make a backup! Install cwm on your device ...boot into recovery> create backup....
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium

k.zacher said:
A couple of things. I've been reading xda for a while but am by no means anything other than a "noob" I know just enough to be dangerous to my phone, but so far only soft bricked my old cappy once. So a very grateful thank you to all the hard work you guys put in to pushing the development.
As a somewhat experienced noob I can say first hand that reading through all these threads and posts that lead in a thousand directions is pretty hard and time consuming. That's why all the "what ROM is best" threads. I sounds kind of selfish coming from someone who has contributed nothing other than traffic to xda, but a section for comparing different ROMs would stop most of those posts.
Now for the questions. Is there a way to put a .zip of the stock ROM on my sd card so I can go back to stock anytime I want? I know I can flash back to stock with odin, but can it be done thru the recovery console? I would like to be able to have several ROMs saved on sd and use recovery to flash between them. I'm not real happy with ROMManager... is freezes all the time, and I've not one time been able to flash with it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW one of the most brutally honest statements I've seen here in a while. That's good. And yes it's all very confusing at times, even for non-noobs lol.
Answer-->once you have rooted and cwm or twrp installed make a nandroid of your system, you can restore this at any time. Once you install a rom and get it running how you want and want to try another rom make a nandroid of that one in recovery, you can go back by restoring it. You can do this in this way until your happy with what your running or you run out of storage.
One word of advice...nandroids are snapshots of how your phone is at that moment...any apps, texts, modifications after the nandroid wont be in it....but...a nandroid combined with my back up or titanium backup is great, nandroid for the system and my back up or titanium backup for texts, apps, call logs and such and you can switch back and forth or install a new rom and restore user apps and call logs, texts, ect without losing those. Remember don't back up system apps or system settings as those may mess up on a different rom, only back up user apps(those you've installed).
Hope this helps a little
BTW--> don't use ROM manager to flash anything other than the recovery. Boot into recovery and flash stuff manually. Also, I would suggest twrp recovery as both have issues with auto naming backups, but at least with twrp you can name it whatever you want before you make it.

Just be careful. I remember a Nandroid not flashing the radio but they may have fixed that. Other than that you should loose nothing other than whatever apps you may have installed on the ROM your tinkering with.

.
I was hoping to make a backup of my non rooted completely stock ROM. I don't see how to do that if first I have to root and flash CWM or another recovery to do the backup. I didn't see any way to do it from the stock recovery. I have looked to see if anyone has posted an zip image of stock non rooted but the only way I've seen to go back to stock is odin3. Is that correct and am I just wasting my time? I wanted that image so I could go back and update to the new stock ROMs as they come out to test drive and see if I want to use them. Just seems easier that way.
Thanks for your responses

I THINK someone posted a zip format of stock but your best bet would be Odin since you didn't make a backup before. I was wondering this a while back too.. Kinda surprised its not in such high demand..
Edit: are nandroid backups device specific? Can one nandroid backup be used for multiple phones? If it can, I'll flash Odin and post nandroid of stock later tonight

jethro650 said:
WOW one of the most brutally honest statements I've seen here in a while. That's good. And yes it's all very confusing at times, even for non-noobs lol.
Answer-->once you have rooted and cwm or twrp installed make a nandroid of your system, you can restore this at any time. Once you install a rom and get it running how you want and want to try another rom make a nandroid of that one in recovery, you can go back by restoring it. You can do this in this way until your happy with what your running or you run out of storage.
One word of advice...nandroids are snapshots of how your phone is at that moment...any apps, texts, modifications after the nandroid wont be in it....but...a nandroid combined with my back up or titanium backup is great, nandroid for the system and my back up or titanium backup for texts, apps, call logs and such and you can switch back and forth or install a new rom and restore user apps and call logs, texts, ect without losing those. Remember don't back up system apps or system settings as those may mess up on a different rom, only back up user apps(those you've installed).
Hope this helps a little
BTW--> don't use ROM manager to flash anything other than the recovery. Boot into recovery and flash stuff manually. Also, I would suggest twrp recovery as both have issues with auto naming backups, but at least with twrp you can name it whatever you want before you make it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium backup is a must. And pay for the app, its cheap and you support the developer.
Also, I've had better results with cwm. As soon as I make a backup to my SD card I boot into the ROM and change the filename.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

g2tegg said:
Titanium backup is a must. And pay for the app, its cheap and you support the developer.
Also, I've had better results with cwm. As soon as I make a backup to my SD card I boot into the ROM and change the filename.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess we will have to agree to disagree titanium is not a "must" I've been using my backup pro for years without problems to make my backups. In my opinion its has a better more user friendly user interface with the same freeze/uninstall options. Also as a recovery twrp is gaining ground on cwm for its better options, one of which is renaming backups on the spot when you make it. Add in a file manger, terminal window, multiple flashes at once and many more options many think it is a better recovery. The way the newer cwm makes nandroids makes it very hard to delete individual nandroids, search cwm blobs for more info.
Also, check our mskips toolkit stickied in the dev section for a backup. You will need to be rooted but not to sure about the recovery. You may be able to do it with the stock recovery as I think it uses adb for pretty much everything it can. There is a way to make a backup on stock recovery through adb but you will need to be rooted, his toolkit will do that also.

[Q] Backup done, ready for root?

Hi. I backed up my phone using the backup method found here: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28296/full-backup-of-non-rooted-devices
This method uses CMD and creates an android backup file (.ab) I want to unlock my bootloader and add the custom clockwork recovery. Of course unlocking the bootloader wipes everything. So if i were to restore everything with the .ab file, then do the custom recovey with the superuser thing, would that give me root, and would all of my apps and data be restored as they are right now?
Probably a stupid question, but i want to be completely 100% sure i won't mess up my phone. I know its going to void warranty, which would be a problem if i dropped it of course
Thanks

It should work yes, you can also backup apps with an app called carbon. Free in the playstore.
Then unlock the bootloader,flash a custom recovery and make a backup of the stock rom in there right away too (needed when you want to go back to full stock for future updates) its called a nandroid backup.
Then root it and restore, or install a brand new custom already rooted rom

Thanks a lot
If it was a custom rom i chose to install, will it still restore? or would it need to be the original stock for the restore to work properly?

Danw20 said:
Thanks a lot
If it was a custom rom i chose to install, will it still restore? or would it need to be the original stock for the restore to work properly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Afaik know you can restore apps on any rom with carbon. Watch out with restoring system data, it can crash the rom.
Because some custom roms have more changes and if you restore system parts it will break the rom. But apps should not be a problem. The most important thing is that you do a nandroid backup of the stock rom. The rest is easy to setup new in the worst case.

Brilliant. Thanks for the help, much apreciated.
Was half expecting an answer like that, i think i will give root stock a go, then probably when HTC stop updating i will be very tempted to give a custom a go.
Cheers

I have unlocked the bootloader, i think i have flashed the recovery, downloaded nandroid and still says i need root, so i downloaded the superuser thing and when i try to install the binary thing it says there is an error. Anything i can do?
Update: I have learnt Its all good now.

Good mate ! Have fun with your rooted phone
CASE CLOSED !

Backup IMEI or forget about it?

I wanted to get all of your opinion on backing up the IMEI.
My situation is, I had rooted last year with the s3 toolkit. 1st rom I flashed was paranoid android then now i'm always flashing Task's AOKP. I'm currently on an older release of his rom (5-21-13) and i've probably flashed it a dozen times without any problems.
My question is, should I continue flashing this rom even though I have not backed up my IMEI or EFS folder or should I flash back to stock right away then, backup IMEI/EFS and continue flashing task's rom? Are the chances high of losing IMEI even though i've flashed the same rom for at least a year now?
I have an AT&T SGH-I747 with baseband DLK3.
In addition, if I were to flash back to stock, can I just use this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2161667
Unfortunately the download link is no longer there so would anyone have a copy?
Also, would this be the best / easiest way to backup the IMEI as of right now? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1804117
Thank you!:cyclops:

promidgetmafia said:
I wanted to get all of your opinion on backing up the IMEI.
My situation is, I had rooted last year with the s3 toolkit. 1st rom I flashed was paranoid android then now i'm always flashing Task's AOKP. I'm currently on an older release of his rom (5-21-13) and i've probably flashed it a dozen times without any problems.
My question is, should I continue flashing this rom even though I have not backed up my IMEI or EFS folder or should I flash back to stock right away then, backup IMEI/EFS and continue flashing task's rom? Are the chances high of losing IMEI even though i've flashed the same rom for at least a year now?
I have an AT&T SGH-I747 with baseband DLK3.
In addition, if I were to flash back to stock, can I just use this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2161667
Unfortunately the download link is no longer there so would anyone have a copy?
Also, would this be the best / easiest way to backup the IMEI as of right now? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1804117
Thank you!:cyclops:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about backing up your IMEI but if you want to switch back to stock 4.1.1 I recommend using this instead: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2363882
It worked like a charm when I was on LK3

always have a backup... as for me i have a copy in my 2 emails, dropbox, work hdd and home hdd... fixing qualcomm imei its much easy and anyone could fix them, in exynos cpu the history its diferent...
backup it with EFSpro, even the tool have option to fix qualcomm imei... read about them, its easy...
Sent from my GT-I9500 using xda app-developers app

carlosm15 said:
always have a backup... as for me i have a copy in my 2 emails, dropbox, work hdd and home hdd... fixing qualcomm imei its much easy and anyone could fix them, in exynos cpu the history its diferent...
backup it with EFSpro, even the tool have option to fix qualcomm imei... read about them, its easy...
Sent from my GT-I9500 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately EFSpro will only let me do the option under backup on EFS Professional to backup the tz, efs, modemst1, and modemst2. Qualcomm crashes due to me currently being on AOSP. Looks like you must be on stock in order to use that. Any tools that will work for other roms besides stock?

carlosm15 said:
always have a backup... as for me i have a copy in my 2 emails, dropbox, work hdd and home hdd... fixing qualcomm imei its much easy and anyone could fix them, in exynos cpu the history its diferent...
backup it with EFSpro, even the tool have option to fix qualcomm imei... read about them, its easy...
Sent from my GT-I9500 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AshishPyala said:
I don't know about backing up your IMEI but if you want to switch back to stock 4.1.1 I recommend using this instead: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2363882
It worked like a charm when I was on LK3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I were to go back to stock it would simply be to backup the IMEI then flash back to AOSP right away. It looks like that restores stock everything (stock kernel, stock rom, and stock recovery)
I would like to keep my recovery but flash stock rom for AT&T S3 through TWRP so I can keep my recovery.

I backed up my imei because the more posts I read, the more it seemed like having a backup would be crucial if you wanted to restore and be successful.
Since that stock rom that I linked to was no longer active, I searched my old backups and found a stock CWM nandroid backup I made after I rooted. I was on TWRP so I flashed the recovery back to CWM via rom manager. Restore the stock nandroid I made then backed up my IMEI.
Switched back to TWRP and made a nandroid backup of the stock rom with twrp so I don't have to mess with recoveries in the future.
Flashed my 5-21 nandroid that was Task's AOSP then just updated to his latest 9-10 release.
All is great and I have a full NV backup.
Thank you all for the suggestions.

promidgetmafia said:
I backed up my imei because the more posts I read, the more it seemed like having a backup would be crucial if you wanted to restore and be successful.
Since that stock rom that I linked to was no longer active, I searched my old backups and found a stock CWM nandroid backup I made after I rooted. I was on TWRP so I flashed the recovery back to CWM via rom manager. Restore the stock nandroid I made then backed up my IMEI.
Switched back to TWRP and made a nandroid backup of the stock rom with twrp so I don't have to mess with recoveries in the future.
Flashed my 5-21 nandroid that was Task's AOSP then just updated to his latest 9-10 release.
All is great and I have a full NV backup.
Thank you all for the suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you walk me through on how to have a full NV backup? Also how would I restore it if I ever needed to? I wanna know just in case I ever lose my imei.

AshishPyala said:
Could you walk me through on how to have a full NV backup? Also how would I restore it if I ever needed to? I wanna know just in case I ever lose my imei.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download a terminal app(root required one) then type su enter reboot nvbackup.
To restore it's su reboot nvrestore.
!!!!!!DO NOT RESTORE BEFORE YOU BACKUP!!!! You will overwrite nv with empty data possibly losing imei forever.

!
thepoetlives89 said:
Download a terminal app(root required one) then type su enter reboot nvbackup.
To restore it's su reboot nvrestore.
!!!!!!DO NOT RESTORE BEFORE YOU BACKUP!!!! You will overwrite nv with empty data possibly losing imei forever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks homie!

[Q] Help! Rooted 4.3, Backed up, and now cant restore backup

Hello, I recently rooted my wifes Note 2 that was on the latest OTA 4.3. Was not easy BTW. I did a back up in recovery of boot, system, and data. I figured I was good to go and start trying out other roms.
The first one I flashed was Macks Allstar 5.0 rom. Everything was great. Then my wife informed me that she did not have all of her contacts backed up to google and some were only saved to her phone. So then I figure I could just restore the original backup and extract the contacts and be able to install them to any rom.
Thats when everything went wrong. Everytime I tried restoring the back up,it would crash and recovery would do like a reboot. After many attempts I figured id try another version of recovery. After flashing many earlier versions of twrp and trying to restore, I finally was able to complete a restore from version 2.6. I was ecstatic. But then my heart sank again when boot always hangs on samsung logo. And that is where I'm stuck. I am able to flash other roms no problem but cant restore my original backup.
Needless to say my wife is ready to kill me.
Please if anyone could help me I would really appreciate it. I have searched throughout this forum and internet for hours and can not seem to find any help with this issue.
I am thankful to have been able to get this far with the help from the XDA community posts I never needed direct help even with prior phone rootings but this one has got me stumped. Thanks in advance

You need to flash Phil's recovery version 6.0.7.9. If you cant restore your backup with Phil's then I'm thinking you might be sol. Make sure you know where you saved the backup to. It's either on the phone's internal sd or external sd card. Choose the correct location in Phil's recovery and if it isn't corrupt it should work. You may also want to copy your backup onto your pc just in case because that's your only backup and doing a full wipe or odin restore could permanently delete it. Good luck.

tx_dbs_tx said:
You need to flash Phil's recovery version 6.0.7.9. If you cant restore your backup with Phil's then I'm thinking you might be sol. Make sure you know where you saved the backup to. It's either on the phone's internal sd or external sd card. Choose the correct location in Phil's recovery and if it isn't corrupt it should work. You may also want to copy your backup onto your pc just in case because that's your only backup and doing a full wipe or odin restore could permanently delete it. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply. I am at work right now and left the phone with my wife with a working rom. I will try phils recovery when I get home. As far as backups, I have two copies. One on my SD card and the other on PC but if they're both fried I guess that negates my efforts in redundancy. It's hard to believe the backup got corrupt so quickly. I have another backup of the 2nd rom I flashed and that one wont install as well.
Is there something I am doing wrong? If the backup file is corrupt, is there a way to extract contacts seperately out of backup?

Method b.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2648855
My wife does that too. Sorry

ColeTrain! said:
Method b.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2648855
My wife does that too. Sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Life of a married man. Haha!
Well, as my backup file was done with TWRP, I tried method B with TWRP recovery and it wont work so now I'm in the process of trying method A. Will update once I tried it.
I think my problem has to do with TWRP not playing friendly with 4.3 ROMS. If that is the case method A looks like it will work.:fingers-crossed:

alexandnen said:
Life of a married man. Haha!
Well, as my backup file was done with TWRP, I tried method B with TWRP recovery and it wont work so now I'm in the process of trying method A. Will update once I tried it.
I think my problem has to do with TWRP not playing friendly with 4.3 ROMS. If that is the case method A looks like it will work.:fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly right. Bootloader isn't playing well with TWRP recovery. Phil"s 6.0.7.9 seems to be compatible in most ROM vs bootloader situations. Don't use latest version of Phil's recovery as it doesn't work as well and most people recommend this as well.
If Phil's recovery won't flash your restore then Odin all the way back to stock unrooted LK8 ROM then root it with the Toolkit and flash TWRP from the toolkit at the same time. Then see if you can restore at that point.

Looks like this project has come to an end. My wife likes her new rom and doesn't want to let me work on her phone anymore. She was able to get most of her contacts back I will make sure she backs her contacts to google and I will try to convince her to install Titanium backup to backup all her app data.
Unfortunately all I have is a work issued iphone that I have no interest in jailbreaking. I really don't see the point.
I am still confident that I could have eventually restored her backup successfully with the help here.
Thank you tx_dbx_tx and coletrain for your help.