Root Complete guide to Backup (Froyo)?

[compulsiveguile]

I run the risk of getting flamed for this... but I deem it a worthy thread, as things are constantly changing. I haven't found an up-to-date thread that has satisfied me yet.

I recently joined the Android community with my purchase of the Moto Droid. After a few days, I became interested in the rooting process and gave it a go... upgrading to Froyo. There have been several ROMs I've tried out, but I'm very hesitant to try more due to backups.

Will somebody provide me (in words or a link) the best way to backup all of my applications and data when testing out a new ROM? I tried Titanium Backup (and even donated), yet I never have successfully restored from a backup. Some applications and system data restore, but a ton of apps don't install, and I have to re-enter my email accounts (and appropriate sync settings) every time. This and the number of apps it doesn't restore (especially Swype) makes it not worth messing around with.

I read something about Nandroid backup, but that just looked like it was a backup in case something went terribly wrong with a ROM or something of the sort. Also, it looked like in the Simply Stunning (ChevyNo1) 4.2, there was a built in backup script... but I'd like to be able to venture between ROMs.

I want to be able to backup all of my apps and system data (gmail accounts, sms, etc), install a new ROM, and reload all of my apps and data.

Any help would be fantastic. Thanks! Love Android Forums... great resource!

 

[VIO]

Titanium Back up does everything you are asking for. Perhaps you are not familiar enough with it? First of all, you do need to make sure that you actually backup everything you want before you flash. I tend to just do a batch back up everything (in TB: Menu->Batch->Backup all user apps + system data). then flash your new Rom. Head to the market get TB again, and restore everything (menu->batch->Restore missing apps + all system data). If you have the donate version you get to sit back and let it go, with the normal version you need to hit buttons when prompted.

The Google settings backup option also tries to do all of this, but I have never had much luck with it being very successful. You can let your phone sit for 30min after Flashing to give Google a chance to try and get everything back.

Things like SMS history eventually shows up but I usually just manually back it up and restore via an app called sms backup, in order to save time.

EDIT: Forgot to add if you are having problems with Titanium Back up Restores not finishing or hanging up Manually stop the app via a task killer (or just do it in the system settings) and reopen the TB and click the "problems" button on the front page to get a viable version of Busybox, that should fix it. TB can be finicky at times and, while an invaluable app, frustrating.

 

[The_Chief]

The "Nandroid" thing you heard something about is VITAL.

If you load a ROM that fails... what's your backup plan? The Nandroid backup takes a snapshot image of your phone in its current state and saves it to the SD card. If you load a finicky ROM you can always restore to that last known good state and start again.

What recovery are you using? Clockworkmod or SPRecovery?

That's where you make your backups.

 

[compulsiveguile]

Titanium Back up does everything you are asking for. Perhaps you are not familiar enough with it? First of all, you do need to make sure that you actually backup everything you want before you flash. I tend to just do a batch back up everything (in TB: Menu->Batch->Backup all user apps + system data). then flash your new Rom. Head to the market get TB again, and restore everything (menu->batch->Restore missing apps + all system data). If you have the donate version you get to sit back and let it go, with the normal version you need to hit buttons when prompted.

The Google settings backup option also tries to do all of this, but I have never had much luck with it being very successful. You can let your phone sit for 30min after Flashing to give Google a chance to try and get everything back.

Things like SMS history eventually shows up but I usually just manually back it up and restore via an app called sms backup, in order to save time.

EDIT: Forgot to add if you are having problems with Titanium Back up Restores not finishing or hanging up Manually stop the app via a task killer (or just do it in the system settings) and reopen the TB and click the "problems" button on the front page to get a viable version of Busybox, that should fix it. TB can be finicky at times and, while an invaluable app, frustrating.

That's what I thought! Hmm... took me a bit of tinkering with to get the hang of initially, but that's exactly what I have been doing (I'm 99% sure). I actually think all of my SMS messages have been restored whenever I've run the batch restore (3 times I believe...). I believe I've always run "Restore all apps with data" opposed to "Restore missing apps with data." That shouldn't make a difference should it? I'm pretty sure I've run all "restore" options in the past out of desperation.

I feel like something just isn't working right. Take now for example. In my backup/restore tab, I have 4 programs listed with the "[not installed]" prefix (Chrome to Phone 1.0, Talk 1.3, Adobe Flash Player, My Verizon 4.0). This list would be significantly longer, but I've manually reinstalled the other vital missing apps. When I got to "Batch," "Restore missing apps with data" lists the number 4, but when I run it, it tells me it completes successfully (in half a second). Absolutely nothing changes. This has been my experience in the past but in larger scale.

I'll check into Google settings backup, but isn't Titanium backup supposed to do that, too?

Do you have any idea what my issue could be? I make sure Busybox is up-to-date (that gave me problems in one instance) before doing anything. I've never had any problems with Backups/Restores hanging. I've even verified all my user backups, too. Thanks!

FYI: I'm running Simply Stunning v4.1 (Froyo FRF57) on my Moto Droid. I've tried others but ran into instability issues so went back.

 

[compulsiveguile]

The "Nandroid" thing you heard something about is VITAL.

If you load a ROM that fails... what's your backup plan? The Nandroid backup takes a snapshot image of your phone in its current state and saves it to the SD card. If you load a finicky ROM you can always restore to that last known good state and start again.

What recovery are you using? Clockworkmod or SPRecovery?

That's where you make your backups.

I've always just run backups in ROM Manager (Premium). Doesn't that do the same thing as Nandroid (Is it Nandroid conveniently packaged?)? I think the mention of ROM manager answers your questions regarding recovery, too. I predominantly use Clockwordmod (in ROM Manager), but I believe I also have the option to go the SPRecovery route.

I suppose this is as good of a time as any to ask for clarification. What is the technical difference between the two?

 

[VIO]

I don't have the donate TiBi (no paypal account :\ ) so I'm not sure what the process looks like on a successful hypershell restore, but on the normal version during a restore the installer for each app in the restore will pop up and I need to click through it. Just to make sure, you are not wiping your SDcard every time you go to install a new Rom correct? your backups are stored on the SDcard.

Also Clockwork Restores are Nandroid backups.

Not sure what to tell you other then to try and contact TiBi developer

 

[compulsiveguile]

I don't have the donate TiBi (no paypal account :\ ) so I'm not sure what the process looks like on a successful hypershell restore, but on the normal version during a restore the installer for each app in the restore will pop up and I need to click through it. Just to make sure, you are not wiping your SDcard every time you go to install a new Rom correct? your backups are stored on the SDcard.

Also Clockwork Restores are Nandroid backups.

Not sure what to tell you other then to try and contact TiBi developer

Yeah, I'm not wiping my SDcard (unless some portion somehow gets overwritten... doubtful though). I'll see if I can get in contact with the developers.