System wiped clean by CWM restore! Please help - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Last night, I installed TW 4.5/TW Manager. I did a ClockworkMod backup first. I decided to restore it.
However, after restoration, the phone is in a factory state. Save for my lock pattern, which it remembered, the phone is in first-run setup mode, all my home screen layouts are gone, all my apps are not in the aop drawer except those the G2 ships with. Contents of the virtual SD card like photos are still there.
I tried restoring my only other CWM backup (a November backup that previously *restored ok* to undo a MIUI test, for example), but this, too, now boots in to the same state.
What has gone wrong here?
And is there any way of getting back the system that I assume/d is/was in the CWM backup files?
If I can't guarantee I can restore a CWM backup, it makes the world a very scary place to be.

Related

[Q] What is lost during a ROM change? How to backup phone so I can play with ROMS

I'm running streakdroid 1.9 but I would like to do some experimentation with my streak. If I flash a new rom what will I lose? How do you backup your data so you can flash to your hearts content?
Thanks
if u flash stock roms, they do a factory reset during first start up.
So u end up loosing everything.
However if u flash .zip version of the stock roms using CWM or streak recovery , u will retain almost everything but may loose somethings like root and so on.
Remember stock roms will flash its default recovery everytime it boots up
Ok thanks. Is it wise to do a factory reset anyway?
What tools can I use to backup messages, apps, photos, etc?
I use titanium backup.
If you do a nandroid backup, when you restore it, everything will be just as it was before you flashed another ROM...
As far as using Titanium... it has never worked for me completely, nor has MyBackUp Pro, they cause me more headache than being useful...
I have gotten to the point to when I flash a new ROM, I just manually install everything, I know it sounds like some hassle, but you end up with a much smoother operating phone.
I even do a nandroid backup first, then go into my ROM and manually uninstall everything, so that when I boot up my new ROM and setup my market account, it doesn't try to install everything on its own and bog down my phone at first, I install everything manually in the order I want and set them up as I go.
I know this sounds cumbersome, but I have found it creates a cleaner environment and practically eliminated force closes
That is the way I like to do things also but what about the things that you can't just re-install e.g. sms, application specific data?
Advice
I was having a sim card and constant restart issue after updating to streakroid 2.4.4, and even after flashing dsc, the problem persisted. After I reviewed the steps I had taken I realized that I never did a factory resest (fearing I would forever lose my precious app data, which I did -_-). It turned out that was the fix, after doing the factory reset, my sim card was recognized immediately and a couple of the text I had missed showed up. However, I fixed one fixed problem and developed another.
Even though I restored a MyBackup and Titanium backup I did right before resetting I recovered my several apps without their precious data (setting, notes, bookmarks). I tried doing internal backups within the apps, some conveniently had syncs to a cloud yet I missed doing that with a few apps because I have over 100+ and I use more than half on a regular basis (even if for 5 minutes). All my apps are on my device, which is a good thing but I cant appreciate that given the missing data.
So my advice is:
Use apps that have can automatically backup or sync data -- there are enough apps with similiar utility that you can avoid ones without that function.
Do a manual backup within your important apps. -- Some apps backup files to locations that may be wiped during update, doesn't have auto backup or the last backup is months old.
Pics, texts, call logs are easily backed up -- Backup programs will explicitly state or ask what to back up in that regard.
Do a nandroid backup -- I believe this only restores rom and apps but someone can correct me.
Caveat
Through all the research done before actually need to restore a backup I missed the fact when restore apps depending on the restore program every app has to be reinstalled individually. If you have more than 25 apps then #$#@!, also for some reason when restoring with titanium if during a batch restore you come across an app if you hit cancel during one of the install prompts because you actually don't want to restore that app the batch will freeze and you'll have to force close titanium and start the restore all over. Go through the list of restore options and choose each app one by one, save yourself the time.
Lastly, to piggy back off what was said before, a factory reset( FR) after updating rom is always recommended but its not always needed. Most roms will update without causing you to lose any data but like I said previously I had sim card issues when I updated without a FR. YMMV
At this point I don't know if this helps the OP but maybe it will benefit someone else who reads this thread.
This guide by _n0p_ tells how to do an upgrade and minimize the re-installation of apps.
Key items:
Use the backup function of any apps that have it
Don't count on restoring data with TB or My Backup
Make a nandroid - just in case
I have found TB and My Backup to be useful for things like browser bookmarks.
The post linked to discussed going from Froyo to Gingerbread but the same techniques apply for moving to any other ROM.
Last time i changed roms, i used the Dell backup utility for evertyhing but the apps, which can be backed up together with their data with QtADB which creates a backup folder on your SD. After installing the new rom, i chose advanced recovery from the Dell Utility and set it to recover everything but the apps, which i recovered with QtADB. However, I also strongly recommend nandroid, in case the steak doesn't boot after the install.

How do I backup my rooted phone?

Hi there,
About a month ago I bought an HTC Thunderbolt and somebody helped me root the phone. Since then I have had some family emergency/issues that have caused me to put programming the phone on hold. Now that they have cleared up I am trying to now learn a little bit more about upgrading Rom/Kernel/Radio.
I am running the following:
Android 2.2.1
Baseband version 1.16.00.0223r
Kernel 2.6.32.21_bamf4.4.2....
Build 1.13.605.7Das Bamf 1.5 Remix
Software 1.13.605.7
Can somebody tell me how to backup my phone entirely?
I would like to back it up with the intent:
* Install different kernel/radio/rom and keep the same android apps without reinstalling
each one individually.
or
* Restore the phone to its current state (if I should drop the phone and get a
replacement).
I do have titanium backup pro installed but it has never been used. Is this all I need?
I seem to recall that there is a backup feature on this phone that was discouraged....
Thanks in advance...
Anthony
The key for me is to
Use Nandroid (the backup feature in recovery) for a full image backup. Use Titanium to backup individual applications.
Before restoring nandroid backups, be sure to wipe cache and Dalvik (under advanced in recovery).
Nandroid takes nearly the entire phone back to the point of backup (houses everything you have on your phone's internal memory). Titanium allows backups to be restored on different roms. Some apps and many system apps don't play nicely with Titanium, but most from the market do play nicely with it.
Installing new kernels doesn't require wiping your data. Installing new/updated roms does. Installing themes usually does not, but there are exceptions.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Thank you for the explanation.
When you refer to Nandroid & recovery feature, you are referring to Clockworkmod?
Per your input I updated to Rom Manager PRO and then simply selected "Backup Current ROM". I assume that this covers everything on the phone including radio/kernel/apps....
If there is anything else I need to do, please let me know.
Thanks again...
Yes, CWM is how you want to backup your phone entirely. I would recommend going into recovery and making a backup on your own instead of hitting the "backup my current rom" button in rom manager. The backup you make will be saved in a folder on your SD card named clockworkmod/backup. I always think its a good idea to move your backups to your computer and keep your two or three most recent backups on your sdcard.
As for backing up your apps, you can do a batch backup in titanium and when you load a new rom you will be able restore the app and any data associated with it. As a general rule I would only backup apps that require a lot of setup. Otherwise when you load a new ROM the apps you had previously installed will automatically restore (depending on the ROM). Just a tip, dont backup system apps. Doing so and switching versions, for example froyo to gingerbread, could cause many issues down the road even if they aren't immediately seen.
Lastly, when installing a new ROM you always want to wipe data/factory reset at least twice and wipe cache and dalvik cache twice each as well. If you have any issues dont hesitate to ask there are many people who are willing to help.
Go to ROM Manager, scroll down and select Backup Current ROM.
I use two apps for backing up and restoring installed apps; Titanium Pro and MyBackup Pro. For some reason MBP successfully restores the apps + data that fail using TP. For example, apps installed from the Amazon android market.
I create full backups with both TP and MBP, but when I need to restore ( after a complete data wipe and new Rom flash) I do the following:
1) skip setting up my Google account during the initial setup process that starts after user data has been wiped.
2) Uncheck the box that allows backups to Google's servers
3) After setup is finished, go into settings, privacy and deselect the automated backup options
( If I don't do the previous two steps, then Google starts pushing apps that may have been backed up and/ or apps that I have purchased. I don't want this to happen since I am going to do my own restore with data.)
4) I use TP to restore MBP only
5) I then use MBP to restore the rest of my user apps and data.
Some may disagree with my two backup app process, but it has been more successful for me than using either TP or MBP by themselves.
If something doesn't go right with MBP, I still have the full TP backup to pull from.
I do not bother backing up systems apps just because it seems to cause me too many issues when i attempt the restore. This means i have to redo any system settings, but that isn't a big deal to me.
Some of my favorite apps have backup features of their own. Folder Organizer and Circle Launcher are two of my all time favorites. Both restore nicely when i move to a new Rom.
Occasionally, i copy the TP, MBP, and Clockwork folders from my sdcard to a folder on my laptop just in case.
The above may sound like alot, but it goes pretty quick for me and I flash quite a bit ( at least once or twice a week when the device is new and the Rom cookers are really active).
Another thought, I have used MBP to successfully restore my android home screen settings for sense ( part of MBP's data bu ). My preferred launcher is LauncherPro, which has its own backup and restore function.
Finally, i always do a nandroid backup before wiping and flashing to a new Rom. I also always do the backup right from clockwork mod recovery. I love the Rom Manager app and paid for the premium version quite a while ago, but i prefer to backup, wipe and flash from the recovery screen. Even if i download something that needs to be flashed using Rom Manager, I still reboot into recovery to perform the needed steps.
Hope this helps and if someone has another app backup/ restore routine they use successfully i would love to know the steps. I am open to learning something new.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

[Q] [BackUp]wiping,backup,restore,flash - basic ques?

Hello m8's
1) i am on Lite.romv1.4 now say i want to mig to a diff rom which does
a full wipe , so i'll take the back up(via cwm recovery)
-now that backup is stored on my int. storage , even if i move it to some
other place say my system , at the time of restore can we do it directly
from the system(point is does the backup file needs to be there in the
device storage(int or ext) at the time of restore - assuming device is
connected)
2)now when a diff rom is loaded (which has done full wipe) ,
-any other way can i get my prev data and app installed settings without
restore
-and if i do restore what exact will happen , mean ,will my prev app and data
settings get restored on top of new rom or something else?
3)How to get cwm recovery menu screen from PHONE Switched OFF state?
4)how can i delete samsung hub apps by editing system and framework files?
(assuming i have req explorer)
Thanks in advance
Cheers
EDIT:so it's not a noob query
anyone can throw some light
c'mmon guys am in dark here
Me no understand could you translate into easy to understand .
jje
Titanium Backup will do everything you asked for (I recomment the Pro version and you MUST be rooted).
It will backup and restore apps and data, and will also freeze or uninstall any app.
It's on the market for free, but I really do recommend paying the small amount for the full version.
johncmolyneux said:
Titanium Backup will do everything you asked for (I recomment the Pro version and you MUST be rooted).
It will backup and restore apps and data, and will also freeze or uninstall any app.
It's on the market for free, but I really do recommend paying the small amount for the full version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 Ti is one of the few apps I would recommend to anyone that wants to flash roms. You can backup all your apps and settings before a flash and then restore quickly and easily. The freeze function is very handy also. IMO you buy this one and never look back. A MUST HAVE.
A nand backup will be used to restore the phone as it already exists. It does not backup apps and settings specifically but you can pull apks and such out of one. Basically you do a nand before you start playing around and if you screw something up or just take an instant dislike to the new rom you flashed you can go into recovery and restore that nand and your phone will be just like you never did anything. It will not however back up your radio.
What I do is backup a few apps data separately and then go into Ti and backup all my apps and system data. I boot into recovery and I make a nand. Then I go over to usb storage and I move the entire contents of the sd over to my computer. This will have both the nand and the Ti backup on it. I delete the entire internal storage after I have taken a quick look to make sure that the backup on my pc is good. This gives me a completely fresh base to start a new rom from. Once I have the new rom flashed I move my ti backup over and restore. I then move the other data that the backup contains that I want back on the phone over and I'm up and running. I keep my music and other stuff that is just going to move from one flash to the next on my sd card as it isnt wiped in the process even if you do a hard reset and it can just stay there without the hassle of backing it up and restoring it. Do not delete your backup until you are sure that you have everything you may want back across to your phone. I usually keep it until the next rom when I start the process over with a new backup.
@JJEgan - which part
@johncmolyneux ,@krabman - thnx guys
so int. usb storage will also be wiped in the process, right?
also can u clarify
- How to get cwm recovery menu screen from PHONE Switched OFF state(like we see by using the function from cwm app -> reboot into CWM rec)
- how can i delete samsung hub apps by editing system and framework files(or if any other file for that matter)?
(assuming i have req explorer)

[Q] Nandroid did not restore the previous state, all apps missing

Hi guys, I'm in awkward situation. I'd appreciate any tip what to do.
Intro: I might have got some (small) amount of water into the phone, so I removed the battery, dried it for some time and then started it. Everything was OK, but anyway I decided to get it cleaned in service to be sure no corrosion appears later. I wanted to give them phone without any private data, so I decided to root, backup, wipe, give it to them and restore afterwards.
So I rooted with Odin and cf-root-sgs2_xw_clk_kf3-v4-0-cwm4 (I have XWKI4 firmware and this was mentioned as the right one for KI4), everything went fine. The phone was working afterwards. So I booted into recovery and backed it up with nandroid, copied the backups and the content of external storage to the computer, wiped the phone in recovery mode and gave it to the service. They cleaned it.
Today, I wanted to restore the backup, but here came the problem. Everything seems to be running, the backup restore took up to 10 minutes, it showed restoring system, data, displayed file names looked real, etc. No error, so I restarted.
However, after restart, the Android intro wizard was shown, I was asked to enter google login and only standard applications were shown. But wifi got connected, flight-mode was restored upon first launch (I used it for backup), wallpaper was restored. In Titanium Backup, I can see the list of all previously installed applications, but in grey and crossed. I reinstalled some of them, but most of them were crashing. For some of them, backing them up, uninstalling, reinstalling them back and restoring only the data (in Titanium) helps. The rest is not crashing at least, but the data are gone. I also tried Titanium to open the CWM backup, but that works for CWM v5 AFAIK, so no luck here either.
What could have happened? Is there any way how to solve this or is it simply lost?
Some background: Bad things happen together as you might know, one of my SoDIMM modules in laptop failed during this operation. system.img was damaged as a consequence (MD5 hash showed this). I found this when I tried to restore the backup for the first time. So I made a wipe, then made another backup, compared the system.img. I saw the MD5 hash for the new system.img is the same as for the old backup so I took the system.img from there. I was lucky this was not data.img. I'm certain I'm restoring with the correct files now - MD5 hash check runs just fine in total commander and nandroid before restore.
I also remember that my first try was without restored external storage, I did put there only the clockworkmod backup. But I believe this would not cause such situation. To have as much information as possible, I did this - wipe data, restore backup, wipe cache, wipe dalvik cache - start. Problem - wizard appearing. Restore the external storage, get into recovery, wipe data, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, restore, reboot. Wizard again
Thanks for any tip. I'm slowly getting accustomed to installing and setting up everything from scratch. I might install custom ROM finally. But lost data and settings are painful.
Aleq
Did you use CWM to backup and restore? I've had problems restoring when I backed up on CWM5 and tried to restore on CWM4. It looks like it copies fine but doesn't. Even if you're sure you have the same version, if you use CWM5 app and click restore in there, it reverts to CWM4 for restore (for some reason...) so you have to reboot into CWM mode from the app to get CWM5 to 'work'.
For both backup and restore I rebooted to CWM Recovery and navigated using volume up/down to "backup and restore". By the way ClockworkMod Recovery is v.4.0.0.2
Anybody, no ideas?
Is it common that nandroid is unreliable?
Aleq said:
Anybody, no ideas?
Is it common that nandroid is unreliable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I had to use nandroid backup several times and every time everything worked fine for me.
First I thought that you forgot to wipe cache partition, but you wrote that you have done it.
Did you tried to wipe cache (and Dalvik cache) before restoring the CWM backup?
If that does not help, try to fix permissions.
If that does not help either, try to flash a stock ROM, then flash CF-Root kernel (or similar with CWM included), then try again to restore your system backup.
As all your apps are still in Titanium Backup, you can uninstall all corrupt apps after restoring your system backup and restore all user apps (+app data) using Titanium Backup.
Maybe you have to reboot your phone twice after restoring the system backup.
And only after the second boot, you will see all your restored apps.
It is just a guess.
Good luck !
Thanks all. I have no idea what was wrong, of course I tried everything - multiple restores, reboots, wiping cache/Dalvik cache, etc. CF kernel failed on me. Luckily not completely, as the data were there, only the apps did not restore. So I installed the apps using Market. They crashed upon start, but I found that if I back them up with Titanium, uninstall them and then restore, it works. Using these steps, I was able to recovery almost everything.
I have used other Kernels since then and never had that issue anymore.
Did you try using advanced restore from within CWM?
If I am not mistaken and that's that functionality that allows you to restore only particular part of backup, then I believe I tried (even though I'm not 100 % sure). I did try fix permissions also.
I'm blaming incorrect / faulty CWM recovery. It just puts some uncertainty into the process in my eyes.
You are the seccond person I've come across with that problem. It's a really strange issue you are facing.
When you tried to restore, did you have the same firmware and cf-root on your phone as when you made the backup?
Yes. I did backup, then wipe/factory reset and gave the phone to service shop (for cleaning after some possible moisture exposure). I have received it in the same state, so I restored - but the apps were missing. I should have tried a different kernel with slightly different CWM recovery.
in my case, this was caused by nandroid getting out of free space when restoring .android_secure...you know what to do

[Q] Random bootloop, backup restore caused a mess of broken apps

Ok, so I have a Sprint Evo 3D with S-Off and the SmoothCriminal rom and 4ext touch recovery (stuck on RC3 because there is no way to install a recovery image anymore without having the device working in the first place).
Last night for no reason the UI started endlessly rebooting, so I decided to just reboot...... and my phone kept boot-looping from then on.
Not wanting to lose all of my data I perform an advanced nandroid backup of all of the partitions separately so I could take a closer look and see what might cause it to boot properly again.
Turns out for some reason the /data/system/sync folder was the problem, removing this causes the phone too boot again after wiping and restoring the data partition with that folder removed from the nandroid backup.
Problem is, I seem to have lost permissions or whatever the term would be for ANY app that didn't come with the rom or had been updated since, I have to delete my account, then re-add it, then uninstall and reinstall EVERY app.
First of all, isn't the sync folder just a temporary cache for data to sync to your accounts? Why would that cause a bootloop and it's removal fix it? And second, why would removing it make me lose all of the equivalent of my "licenses" for every app? Is there any easy way to fix this?
Sorry I don't have an answer to your main question, but do you not have your apps backed up with titanium (or another) that you can easily restore from?
I didn't have a backup from before it started bootlooping, no. Plus its not like I can run Titanium if all I can access are the bootloader and recovery, not the main OS.
And also, I have another problem now. All the system apps I cannot update because of the license conflict thing, and unlike the other apps I cannot just uninstall and reinstall them to fix it, since they are system apps. Just updating doesn't work either.

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