Help fresh reset and backup will not restore to phone??

glasshalffull · Feb 7, 2020

i did a fresh reset in recovery mode. had to bypass allowing restore during initial setup after reset due to screen lock pin error.

Can't get the restore backup to add to my phone from google drive. What am i doing wrong?

It seems like the old backup to be used to restore is blockng the new initial setup on the phone from creating a new backup....which is good because i want to restore that old back from yesterday . it was before i did a fresh reset.

Phone is activated on the same google account that the backup is stored on in google drive. 2 factor is turned off.

according to this tutorial, If i skip restoring during initial setup i should get a notification to continue finish setup....i have not (3+hrs)

Some of the contacts have been added back to the phone automatically somehow and 52 of the apps are showing as installed in google play out of 105 apps total not sure how they got here as the restore has never happened.

In the past the apps were placed back on the homescreen where they belong when a restore was done, that did not happen yet. Is it supposed to?

When i go into backup in settings it says that it is already on and waiting to backup?

Support told me to try to turn it off and then on again but that triggers a warning telling me that it will delete the backup permanently that i want to restore from google drive.

https://imgur.com/a/5o6Atfd .............. https://imgur.com/a/uttXNGg ............ https://imgur.com/a/zyqY1Fx

so what do i do to get the restore backup to load back onto the phone?

support told me to go to the google account recovery page and sign in.

Would the google account recovery login help with this?

I can't seem to tell what that page does?

thanks for any advice!

Dannydet · Feb 7, 2020

You just need to login with your Gmail account credentials

codesplice · Feb 7, 2020

What was the screen lock pin error you encountered?

glasshalffull · Feb 9, 2020

Dannydet said:
You just need to login with your Gmail account credentials

Hi.....I am logged in with my gmail account. It is the same account that contains the backup on google drive. Those pictures of the backup section in settings are what i see after the phone has connected with the google account which is also recognized and activated with the google fi cell service.

That is what is the mystery is why it is not simply adding all of the restore backup ....back onto the phone. It seems as though something is stopping it and i'm not sure why or how to troubleshoot it.

thanks

glasshalffull · Feb 9, 2020

codesplice said:
What was the screen lock pin error you encountered?

the screen lock pin came up all of a sudden.

Update: Just saw this after writing this post........I now have 2 backups in google drive for my pixel 3xl One of them is the original backup that i want to restore...it's dated February 6 and has the Google 1 behind.

Since i reset the phone this new backup was created Feb 9th 7:02 am without google 1. (see image)

What could that be telling me?

I am glad to see that the old restore was not overwritten as the new backup does not have anything in it......its simply a backup after the fresh reset.

https://imgur.com/a/zqRrdnX

Now to answer your question in quotes:

I use fingerprint to unlock and then all of a sudden it changed to asking for the pin. I've had 4 different pins over my lifetime with this account and i tried them all and it would not unlock. So i was told the next step was fresh reset to be able to create a new pin.

During the initial setup after reset, i got the point where it asked if i wanted to restore the backup, when i started that process it stopped me with the same problem......asking for the OLD screen lock pin, the one that was the initial problem.

So i was told to not do the restore during the initial setup (do it later) that way i could create a new pin and get the phone working at least. Which i did, initial setup got the phone working, phone contacts restored, 50 of my apps (there are 105 total) were added.

None of the call history, SMS history, MMS, device settings were added. In the restore backup i can see all of those things in the backup preview.....it's there but not being added back to the phone.

Not sure why

codesplice · Feb 9, 2020

Unfortunately I think that's the root of your issue. You can use a fingerprint as a shortcut to unlock your phone but your data is still encrypted using a key derived from your lock screen PIN/pattern/password. You'll be periodically prompted for that PIN even while set to use a fingerprint. If you're unable to enter the correct PIN then you won't be able to unlock the phone.

Your backup in the cloud is also encrypted in a similar way. You'll need to provide the correct key in order to be able to restore the data. I'm sorry to say that I don't know a way around this.

NightAngel79 · Feb 10, 2020

glasshalffull said:
the screen lock pin came up all of a sudden.

Update: Just saw this after writing this post........I now have 2 backups in google drive for my pixel 3xl One of them is the original backup that i want to restore...it's dated February 6 and has the Google 1 behind.

Since i reset the phone this new backup was created Feb 9th 7:02 am without google 1. (see image)

What could that be telling me?

I am glad to see that the old restore was not overwritten as the new backup does not have anything in it......its simply a backup after the fresh reset.

https://imgur.com/a/zqRrdnX

Now to answer your question in quotes:

I use fingerprint to unlock and then all of a sudden it changed to asking for the pin. I've had 4 different pins over my lifetime with this account and i tried them all and it would not unlock. So i was told the next step was fresh reset to be able to create a new pin.

During the initial setup after reset, i got the point where it asked if i wanted to restore the backup, when i started that process it stopped me with the same problem......asking for the OLD screen lock pin, the one that was the initial problem.

So i was told to not do the restore during the initial setup (do it later) that way i could create a new pin and get the phone working at least. Which i did, initial setup got the phone working, phone contacts restored, 50 of my apps (there are 105 total) were added.

None of the call history, SMS history, MMS, device settings were added. In the restore backup i can see all of those things in the backup preview.....it's there but not being added back to the phone.

Not sure why

codesplice said:
Unfortunately I think that's the root of your issue. You can use a fingerprint as a shortcut to unlock your phone but your data is still encrypted using a key derived from your lock screen PIN/pattern/password. You'll be periodically prompted for that PIN even while set to use a fingerprint. If you're unable to enter the correct PIN then you won't be able to unlock the phone.

Your backup in the cloud is also encrypted in a similar way. You'll need to provide the correct key in order to be able to restore the data. I'm sorry to say that I don't know a way around this.

Also, even with a Finger Print used, you have to enter a PIN every single time you restart the phone. It can't have been long since you used it last? Could it? With security update every month, you should at least use it once a month right? You have no clue what your PIN was? When was the last time you used the pin?

glasshalffull · Feb 12, 2020

I NOW have the correct PIN that i couldn't remember earlier. But i had already reset the phone with a new PIN. I can still see the restore backup in google drive (with it's Google One icon) along with a new backup that was just created after this new reset.

So i reset the phone again using recovery mode and entered the older PIN that i had forgot when i was asked during intitial setup to restore the backup from the cloud.

After choosing to restore from cloud, it gave me 1 choice, Pixel 3xl backup. I selected it and it went through ok and said everything was done but the restore did not happen.....no apps returned, device settings or call history or sms. this 1 day ago.

If I go into Google One and restore the videos and audio and stuff that is saved by One, it works fine, but i cannot get Android to restore the device settings, call history, apps, etc.

BTW. Now that there are 2 backups in Google Drive, they both have the same name, Pixel 3 xl backup, the only difference is that there is the ONE icon after the older backup that has all of my settings in it, the other does not have that one drive access.

What am i doing wrong?

NightAngel79 · Feb 12, 2020

glasshalffull said:
I NOW have the correct PIN that i couldn't remember earlier. But i had already reset the phone with a new PIN. I can still see the restore backup in google drive (with it's Google One icon) along with a new backup that was just created after this new reset.

So i reset the phone again using recovery mode and entered the older PIN that i had forgot when i was asked during intitial setup to restore the backup from the cloud.

After choosing to restore from cloud, it gave me 1 choice, Pixel 3xl backup. I selected it and it went through ok and said everything was done but the restore did not happen.....no apps returned, device settings or call history or sms. this 1 day ago.

If I go into Google One and restore the videos and audio and stuff that is saved by One, it works fine, but i cannot get Android to restore the device settings, call history, apps, etc.

BTW. Now that there are 2 backups in Google Drive, they both have the same name, Pixel 3 xl backup, the only difference is that there is the ONE icon after the older backup that has all of my settings in it, the other does not have that one drive access.

What am i doing wrong?

Wow, that is very strange... I've not dove into that much detail. Can you delete the newer of the backups so you only have 1 choice, then try it all again maybe?

glasshalffull · Feb 12, 2020

NightAngel79 said:
Wow, that is very strange... I've not dove into that much detail. Can you delete the newer of the backups so you only have 1 choice, then try it all again maybe?

I tried that but not sure if i did it correctly as I deleted the restore backup that i did not want while i was already going through the initial setup, so seconds after deleting it, I went through the restore process, and it did not restore the correct one.

I'm wondering if i needed to wait 5 minutes after deleting before even starting the initial setup...but...

....since i had entered the correct PIN for the old backup, the only option for that PIN should be the correct backup.....right?

the newer backup was created using a newer pin.

Is there a way to rename a backup or force it to be restored?

thanks for your help!

NightAngel79 · Feb 12, 2020

glasshalffull said:
I tried that but not sure if i did it correctly as I deleted the restore backup that i did not want while i was already going through the initial setup, so seconds after deleting it, I went through the restore process, and it did not restore the correct one.

I'm wondering if i needed to wait 5 minutes after deleting before even starting the initial setup...but...

....since i had entered the correct PIN for the old backup, the only option for that PIN should be the correct backup.....right?

the newer backup was created using a newer pin.

Is there a way to rename a backup or force it to be restored?

thanks for your help!

I'm not sure you can force that, but I've never tried! Glad you at least got some stuff back/figured out.

codesplice · Feb 12, 2020

Yeah unfortunately the backup/restore mechanism doesn't offer a whole lot of control - or even indications when something isn't working correctly.

Since you've got the Google One logo that indicates you've got a Google One subscription, which means you've got an extra avenue for Google support. You might want to hit up https://one.google.com/support to see if they're able to assist you with getting the correct data restored.

glasshalffull · Feb 12, 2020

codesplice said:
Yeah unfortunately the backup/restore mechanism doesn't offer a whole lot of control - or even indications when something isn't working correctly.

Since you've got the Google One logo that indicates you've got a Google One subscription, which means you've got an extra avenue for Google support. You might want to hit up https://one.google.com/support to see if they're able to assist you with getting the correct data restored.

thanks for the thoughts, but all of the data that i want to restore is backup only on the android side, not google one side, so they won't help as it's not on them.

https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/9149304?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en

Dannydet · Feb 12, 2020

If it's gone on your android device only, then it's gone forever

codesplice · Feb 12, 2020

glasshalffull said:
thanks for the thoughts, but all of the data that i want to restore is backup only on the android side, not google one side, so they won't help as it's not on them.

https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/9149304?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en

Did they tell you that? One of the perks of Google One is supposed to be dedicated support for all things Google (ie, Pixel) whether it's storage related or not. Or at least that's how I understood the pitch.

glasshalffull · Feb 13, 2020

Dannydet said:
If it's gone on your android device only, then it's gone forever

hi...it's still there on the android device, i just can't figure out how to make the restore use that specific backup.

codesplice said:
Did they tell you that? One of the perks of Google One is supposed to be dedicated support for all things Google (ie, Pixel) whether it's storage related or not. Or at least that's how I understood the pitch.

They had told me that device settings, call history was an android problem, not their problem. it's kinda confirmed too.....When i start the restore from Google One it confirms what is stated on the Google One help page.......the data that is restored is photos and videos, and audio files from MMS messages...not the device settings, sms and app history.

just fyi...that google one restore is not available until you install the One app so it seems it could not be accessed during intital setup.

this is a messy thing i'm in

codesplice · Feb 13, 2020

That's disappointing regarding the support, but you're absolutely right about the Google One backup. The native Google backup captures app data and settings and all that while the Google One backups are primarily for files, messages, and media. It's kind of a confusing mess.

Help fresh reset and backup will not restore to phone??

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