Petrah

This thread is an adjunct helper thread for the original [Guide] TitaniumBackup Tutorial thread in the FAQ area.

Please post your support issues and questions here.

Thanks!

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Last edited by scary alien; February 12th, 2013 at 07:30 AM.

JBNex

Thanks a MILLION!

JBNex

Why do you need zipsigner?

EDIT: I see why.

Last edited by JBNex; August 25th, 2012 at 06:55 PM.

JBNex

Is it normal for a prompt to install every one of my apps?

Petrah

Did you purchase TiBu?

scary alien

Awesome job here, Petrah!

Moved to the FAQ area and stickied for you!

Thank you again .

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[App] AFV (Android File Verifier) - file checksum (MD5, SHA1, etc.), signed jar / .zip verifier, and Nandroid backup verification
[App] OTA Verifier (beta) - verify an over-the-air (OTA) update.zip or other flashable .zip file
[App] Android Root Toolkit - useful root functions / utilities

Petrah

/blush

Thanks again!

JBNex

Oh that's why, thanks

JBNex

I have a question, why doesn't formatting the data not wipe the sdcard?

seeafish

Thanks for the handy guide. Bookmarked!
Just have a question. Is there any way to restore other things such as your home screen setup, ringtone/notification tones and settings, and other stuff like that? The thing I hate the most after a full wipe is redoing my home screens and redoing all my tweaked system settings etc etc.

JBNex

Is it not good to format the sdcard portion? I have a gnex so it doesn't really have one. Can I just copy back the backups? Or not

Petrah

There might be some apps that help with that on the Play Store, but I'm not entirely sure. Most of the time a custom launcher will have backup settings, and those backups stay on your SD so they should be there even if you factory reset from recovery. Check with your specific phones user guide though just to make certain.

If you format the sd card, that wipes everything from it (not to be confused with wiping data/factory resetting in recovery). Most people use DropBox (over WiFi) or something similar to make extra backups on their PC or laptop hard drive. If that's the case, or however you moved your backups, yes you should be able to move them back to the SD.

I hope I understood your question, and that I was able to help!

Petrah

There might be some apps that help with that on the Play Store, but I'm not entirely sure. Most of the time a custom launcher will have backup settings, and those backups stay on your SD so they should be there even if you factory reset from recovery. Check with your specific phones user guide though just to make certain.

Edit: You may have to re-add widgets manually.

If you format the sd card, that wipes everything from it (not to be confused with wiping data/factory resetting in recovery). Most people use DropBox (over WiFi) or something similar to make extra backups on their PC or laptop hard drive. If that's the case, or however you moved your backups, yes you should be able to move them back to the SD.

I hope I understood your question, and that I was able to help!

JBNex

So is the sdcard part of the titaniumbackup I meant? If I restore from TB, will sdcard data be in it?

Petrah

The folder on your SD card called TitaniumBackup has the backup of your user apps and their settings inside of it.

JBNex

Is sdcard folder the data?

Petrah

JB, I can tell by the questions you keep asking in the different threads that you wanna know something about the folders on your phone. Can you be a bit more specific about what it is exactly that you want to know?

Hope your weekend is going well!

paganompu

Thanks a ton for this tutorial! It was just what I was looking for, and helped convince me to invest in TiBo Pro. I'm trying to stay up to date with DHD JB releases, so I'm having to flash a new ROM every couple of days or so.

I did run into issues restoring TiBo Pro, though. When I started TiBo after flashing, it came up as a free version. I tried restoring TiBo Pro from within TiBo, but the key was never detected. To fix it, I had to remove TiBo Pro, then sign in to Google and re-download it from the market. Only then did TiBo detect the key and full functionality was restored.

misterteche

Well written tutorial for a great backup app. I have been using TiBak Pro for about a year now. I didn't know that a flashable TiBu file--learn something new everyday! The flashable file comes in handy when restoring apps after installing a new ROM. Keep up the great work!

scary alien

Thanks misterteche for the great feedback and complements to the great work done by Petrah!

Cheers and welcome to the AndroidForums!

bberryhill0

What's the difference between a signed and unsigned .zip for restoring Titanium Backup?

Is this ICS specific? It seems to me that Titanium runs a little different on GB. Not sure if it's changed but you used to have to go to Backup/Restore and tap menu> Batch instead of tapping the check mark.

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Petrah

I don't see that it would matter really, since you're not sharing the zip file. IMHO it just makes it easier since the step is already there when you're creating the zip file.

MacFett

I've been using App2Zip to make flashable app packages, I think it works great in addition to Titanium Backup. It shows you a list of your installed apps and you check which ones you want to include in your flashable zip. It includes data in it as well.

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Petrah

Sounds like it would be a great app, but the warning at the top of the description makes me hesitant to try it. As soon as the app is more stable and has been tested/updated to be out of the testing phase, I'll jump at adding it as an option in my guide.

Thanks for the tip, MacFett! I'll keep an eye on it.

Caveman419

I have been using TiBu since the OG Droid days and found out about three months ago that this was possible.

Great Guide!! I picked up a few more tips from this like:
1) Backup new user apps & newer versions
2) Tap on Redo backups for modified data

I had never messed with anything other than: Backup all user apps. Very helpful!!

Can you tell me if you have encountered any "problem apps" that do not play well with this application?

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Last edited by Caveman419; October 4th, 2012 at 07:57 AM.

MacFett

Quickpic had a problem but I've only made on zip with it. Someday I will go back and try it again to see if it was the zip or quickpic itself.

Petrah

None thus far. And thank you for the kind words. <3

lookinin

Hey Petra! You've definitely got a handle on TiBu and that's great. Now, I've got a problem that maybe you can help me with. I'm running TiBu Pro (paid version), btw.

I installed JellyBean 4.2 on my rooted G Nexus GSM phone today. Don't ask; it's not been fun and if I could undo it, well, let's say that I'd have done that.

Anyway, because of the new install Android has written the TiBu Backups way down in the root directory. Something like 0>0>Titanium Backups. I have tried to a reinstall of the Apps but now all I've got are "empty shells" or Icons with "App isn't installed" popping up everytime I press select an App to run. When I go to "Restore" I've got the following choices available to me:

• RUN - Restore missing apps with data - 0
• RUN - Restore all apps with data - 74
• RUN - Restore all system data - 68
• RUN - Restore missing apps + all system data - 64
• RUN - Restore newer versions of user apps -0

Now, I've run just about everything, done the reboots as it recommended, but no dice. Do I have to go back to Google Play and reinstall from there? It seems that would over-write any data that I had saved. If you have any suggestions I'd really appreciate your help.

Oh, and just a suggestion to those dying to install 4.2 - wait until a super-stable version comes out. Otherwise it can cause you no end of trouble.
Cheers,
Kevin

scary alien

Welcome to the AndroidForums, Kevin.

I should (and wish I did) know more about TiBu that do, but I'm sure Petra or some other TiBu expert will weigh-in here on your issue.

I do see that there's a note in the TiBu change log that says:

So maybe that would give you another avenue to try...

Cheers and thank you for signing-up with us here at AF.

Petrah

Lookinin,

Hi there, and welcome to Android Forums!

First question, and apologies if you've already made sure of this, did you make sure that in TiBu when you tap on the Backup/Restore tab (between the Overview and Schedules tab) and from there on the Click to edit filters tab that All is chosen all the way down the list? Sometimes if you don't have User, System and Uninst all chosen it makes it look like all of your backups are gone.

Also check in the TiBu preferences and have it rescan the Backup folder location.

lookinin

First of - thanks for the warm welcome to the Android community and thanks to both Petra & scary alien. Anyway, just to give you some background (and maybe others can learn from this, too) I bought my first Android phone (GNEx GSM) a couple of months ago. It was rooted and running 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. I was a quick study of things that new users should do and I installed Juice Defender (paid version) and TiBu (paid version, too). Well, after installing about 120 apps (it's very addictive I've discovered) and thoroughly enjoying the device, I read about Jelly Bean 4.2 and supposedly stable versions out there in Web-land. Well, you can guess where this is going. Being a noob I clicked on Backup/Restore, finally figured out that the grayed-out checkmark was the thing you touched to start the backup, then I clicked on the first three things under "Backup" and let 'er rip. Not one to be afraid of a challenge I installed the ROM on my internal flash card, downloaded TWRP (nice interface, btw) and I wiped and swiped my way to blissful thoughts and dreamed of being one of the first Canucks up here in The Frozen North to be running 4.2!
Well, what a clustermug that turned out to be: sleeps of death, frozen screens, cruddy phone, apps hanging, Firefox crashing, et al. So, enough of that; roll 'er back to an earlier version and wait for some other sucker to work out the bugs. So, I installed 4.1.1 from XDA-Developers.com and restored my apps using the much-praised TiBu. Now how do I insert a scream here? Nevermind - just imagine my horror when looking under "Restore" and all of the RUN tabs show "0". So, now I've got a high performance phone essentially burning wood and no apps to load back into it.
Wait, I say; have the doctor take a look at its guts, i.e., connect it to my PC and look at the directory contents via Explorer. Well, lo and behold, Android has decided to play with my mind and it's put TiBu so deep in the ground that miners could never find it. The path is: Galaxy Nexus>Internal Storage>0>0>0>Titanium Backup. And yes, there are 620 files which total 686 MB with extensions like: .apk & .tar all smiling back at me.
Now, this is where you smart people come into the picture. What am I supposed to do with that? TiBu can't or won't "drill down" that deep, I tried copying the files to the PC and moving them up the elevator, so to speak, but no luck. They're still stuck in Dantes Furnace and I have no idea how to bring 'em back to daylight. I also think that all those zeroes means something is wonky in OS. I figure it's better to start from scratch, maybe try 4.2 again (yes, I'm a masochist), reload all my favorite apps and be the happy camper I once was. So, I would really appreciate some solid advice from you Android pros out there that are prolly just busting a gut at all the dumb things I've done. Did I ever tell ya about the time I tried to remove my own appendix? Just kidding. Thanks in advance to any and all out there. And Petra, you should have written the Instruction Manual for TiBu because you're much better at it than Software Engineers who assume we're all knowing when it comes to computers.
Cheers,
Kevin

lookinin

UPDATE! UPDATE! Petrah I could kiss you! Wait, I'm married - duh. Anyway, unlike most men, I actually followed the instructions - yours, that is! I managed to get TiBu to "drill down" through all the zeroes and I've been able to restore 99% of the apps. Mucho gracias! Now, how can I screw up this smartphone again? Don't worry, it's a piece of cake for me. Take care.
Cheers,
Kevin

Petrah

lol Kevin.... /hugs

Glad you got it worked out!!

This. ^ The highest compliment any tutorial writer could ever receive. You are awesome, Kevin... thank you!

Last edited by Petrah; November 20th, 2012 at 03:14 PM.

nyhunter77

Hi there,

Just wondering, if i have a Nexus 7 and the full Ti backup, can you confirm which folders I should copy over to an external source in order to have my full system recovery available should something bad happen? Thanks.

I haven't had a chance to read all the posts here but if you know, the nexus 7 has no actual removable sd card right? (I'm a newbie but i do know some ppl have removed the back? I don't know what they've found though)

I'm planning to back up the folders to dropbox.

Thanks a lot!

seeafish

If you have the pro version you can enable upload to dropbox and it does that for you, meaning you won't have to figure out what folders to upload
In any case, I'm pretty sure it's just the TitaniumBackup folder anyways.

And no, the N7 has no external SD, but you can add one via a small adapter that plugs into the usb port.

MacFett

They are called usb-to-go and can be found on Amazon as well as many other sites pretty cheap. Just be careful,the one I ordered is coming from China via the slow boat (24 days in transit.)

seeafish

That's the one yes. Always forgot the damn name!

Brian706

TiBu now includes the option to make a flashable zip out of your user apps/data as well if you want to add that to your tutorial.

When in backup/restore mode hit the checkmark in the upper right hand corner and scroll down to recovery mode. There you will see the option "Create update.zip from app+data backups".

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Petrah

Thank you, Brian! I'll get that added as soon as things (holidays) calm down a bit and I get some extra time.

Thanks again!!

maxslater

Firstly thank you very much for the awesome tut.


Secondly while you are at it please add how to set up schedules also

nerddiffer

May you explain why one should never backup / restore system data?
Is this meant only in the context of backing up user apps?

Petrah

Thanks!

Scheduling is pretty self explanatory. There's already some set up in there by default, so if you wanted auto backups on a different schedule all you would need to do is adjust the date and time.

No, system data and data from 3rd party apps (user installed apps) are different. When you're following this tutorial you should be wiping all of the data to prepare for a fresh ROM install, so you wouldn't want to install backups of previous system data that you just wiped.

I probably didn't explain that very well, so if anyone else would like to take a stab at it, pretty please go ahead.

pundit

Thanks Petrah! I registered to give thumbs up. Have a a few question though:
Why make a zip with tibu as system app rather than normal app?
What is the step mount/system for?

Project Shadow

Hey everyone! I really need your serious help because i was on Hp touchpad with cm9 also rooted so I got new Samsung Galaxy 10.1 note tablets... So I use TB since year ago, I backup the app with data (save game) left off, so I went on pc for copy tb file from hp to pc and then I put tb file to samsung galaxy 10.1 is now rooted also... TB launch and restore it... The App with data working then i went to game... the data save game is gone but not apk.. i repeated over 8 times to make sure everything what i do also i do uninstallled and restailled this sht still not working so I have start all over again...

Help I need to get my data game put to samsung galaxy to get work i still have save tb on pc anyone have issue about that??

mrburkley

Thanks for your tutorial! I do have a question though...

I would like to move some of my apps to my external SD card, but TB (pro version) doesn't recognize my external SD card for that purpose. I can do a backup to the external SD card (it's set as sdcard02/TitaniumBackup, which is my external card), but the directory for the "External Storage" is sdcard0, which is the internal memory.

When I go to "Move/Integrate" option under "Batch Backup/Restore-ALL I can tell TB to "Move user apps to the SD card." It seems to do something (it says "Moving), but nothing seems to happen. I can't find anything on the external SD card (which makes sense since it seems to be pointing to the internal memory), but I can't find anything on the internal card either.

When I then select "Move User Apps to internal memory" there are no apps shown to move to internal memory.

I went to the TB homepage and got the following information, which unfortunately makes no sense to me at all.

Can you help!

--Michael

from the website...

20. What are the requirements for using the “Move app data to SD card” (Data2SD) feature?

Our Apps2SD scheme creates symbolic links (one per app) at /data/data/com.x.y that will point to somewhere within an ext2/3/4 partition on the SD card.
The supported mount points for the ext2/3/4 partition are:
/system/sd/ (“classic” sd-ext)
/sd-ext/ (“Cyanogen” sd-ext)
/data/sd/ (“MIUI” sd-ext)
So for Data2SD to work, you’ll need to ensure that your ext2/3/4 partition is mounted at one of these locations. Then create an “app” directory at that location in case it doesn’t exist. Once it’s done, you’ll see a free space gauge for it in the Titanium Backup welcome screen, and you can then long-click on an app in the list and hit the “Move app data to SD” button. Once you do that:
First, Titanium Backup will look for existing symbolic links in /data/data/ and attempt to re-use the same target location, if it lies within the ext2/3/4 partition.
If it finds no existing (or no suitable) destination, it will propose to create a “data2″ folder within the ext2/3/4 partition, and will then move the app’s data inside it.
So by default, you’ll get: /data/data/com.x.y => /system/sd/data2/com.x.y (in the “classic” sd-ext case).

johnnylighton

Let's say I back up all my user apps and data using this tutorial, and I also do a Nandroid backup.

What data and settings will *not* have been backed up, and won't be automatically reinstalled from the cloud, if I need to restore my phone? I.e., will I have lost anything?

Thank you!

carlo67

hi
I flashed the ParanoidAndroid 2.55cm (4.1.2):
I have Apex launcher and Titanium Backup ★ root pro.I made a tb backup in cm9 . I restored all of apps and data and it went well on ParanoidAndroid 2.55cm (4.1.2):. but

I would like to know how to restore all the widgets on ParanoidAndroid 2.55cm with Apex launcher home screens ?

DragonSlayer95

Really the only way to do this is if apex wasn't your system app and you made a back up of apex.

Restore your app with widgets first, then restore the apex app/data and your widgets should be on there now.

Restore those in order or the home screen won't read the widgets properly.

Hope this helps.

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carlo67

ok
what about [applications widgets?] will I restore it ?if yes, [before or after] ?

DragonSlayer95

Before, any app/widget that's on the backed up apex home screen should be restored first.

Keep in mind as well any apps not restored will still show up in the app drawer and you'll need to manually remove those.