Titanium Backup, Backup Pro or Nandroid Backup?

[razz2525]

So my AT&T Galaxy S4 is rooted (4.2.2, 1337UCUAMF3) and when I first rooted, my phone started getting unstable, went into a boot loop after I froze some bloatware using TB, and I had to do a wipe. All my apps reinstalled themselves since I'd been using Google Sync, but although I thought I'd been backing up to DropBox, none of my settings were there, bookmarks gone, my wallpaper gone, even some updated contacts gone. Luckily, photos, music, videos, etc. were backed up to my external SD card so no worries there.

Here's the thing - if I have to do another factory reset, I really don't want to go through rebuilding all of my settings, my WiFi settings, Bluetooth, etc. I've been backing up to DropBox and my external SD card using TB, Backup Pro and Nandroid Manager, although when I try to "explore" my NM backups, it says save location unknown, backup type unknown, everything unknown! Makes me very nervous. What's going on? It can't seem to find any of the backups. Should I just uninstall NM Pro and stick with TB and Backup Pro? (I know, I paid way more than I should have.)

Also, would there be a benefit to flashing a new ROM? Would having a ROM like Cyanogenmod help backup all of my settings, I mean everything I have on my phone? I'm not concerned about system data, just my personalizations.
I'm not even sure what recovery I have installed, I think its TWRP (???). Not sure what that does for me, but supposedly it was installed when I rooted my phone using the casual root method from the xda forums.

Speaking of ROM, I know I have a lot of redundant apps there as well: ROM Toolbox Pro, ROM Manager, ROM Installer, CyanogenROM Downloader, etc. Which can I uninstall?

Thanks much!

 

[funkylogik]

Tbh i dont know what nandroid manager is but im guessing it uses your custom recovery (twrp) to make a nandroid backup?
A nandroid is a backup of the whole phone, everything.
Its useful so that if you mess something up, you can return the phone to exactly how it was, no need to factory reset. If you make regular nandroids you cant really go wrong.

Titanium backs up your apps and their data. Its useful when you flash a new rom because when you do that, you have to wipe the phone's apps and start fresh so titanium will restore your apps exactly how they were on the last rom.
So theres a need for both types of backup but a different need.
Hope that makes sense man.
P.s, id learn to make nandroids manually in recovery instead of using an app. Youll learn more about whats happening and be able to fix things easier when they go wrong :thumbup:

 

[codesplice]

Can you provide a link to the Backup Pro app? I can't find it on the Play Store, and I'm not familiar with it, but it sounds like it's probably redundant (with Titanium Backup).

As funkylogik mentioned, a Nandroid is essentially a snapshot of everything on your phone. Like Ghost for PCs, Nandroid pretty much creates an image of each filesystem (/system, /data, etc) which can be restored later if you run into issues. This is great for getting back to a working system if everything goes to hell, but may not be as useful as a regular backup solution. I believe the general suggestion is to nandroid before flashing anything new in case a ROM/kernel flash breaks everything.

TitaniumBackup works great as a scheduled backup of each app with its related data stores. It can also back up system data (Wifi passwords, Bluetooth IDs, etc) - just be extremely careful when restoring system data, as restoring system application data can cause issues.

By the way, those system bits (Wifi, Bluetooth, sound profiles, etc) should be automatically backed up to Google's cloud - check Settings > Backup & reset > Back up my data to make sure that's selected.

 

[razz2525]

Sorry, I left out that it was GO Backup Pro. I know, I'm obsessing about saving all of my settings, browser bookmarks, contacts, etc., so I'm probably going overboard with all of the different backups going to SD card, DropBox and Google Drive. The loss of my SMS was the worst actually since my contacts got messed up for some reason when I did the wipe so now I only have facebook and google contacts with no phone numbers!

So, here's the question. Nandroid Backup keeps asking me for my ClockWork Mod folder and technically I'm not supposed to install/flash a custom recovery on this build because the bootloader is locked (???) on this MF3 build. I may have already screwed myself by flashing ClockWorkMod. I might have to use ODIN to get back to stock MF3 recovery... Anyhoo, where do I find this ClockWork Mod folder so that I can actually complete a Nandroid Backup? A snapshot of my phone is EXACTLY what I need. I also want to backup my settings from my launcher (home screen, wallpaper, etc.).

When I went into ROM Manager, it said that the ROM backup goes into a ClockWorkMod folder but when I copied and pasted this path into Nandroid Backup, it told me that this is an invalid folder! Very confused about how to accomplish the Nandroid Backup... I'm a noob so I was hoping the app could do it for me, but apparently there's a way to accomplish a nandoid backup manually??

 

[codesplice]

Sorry, I left out that it was GO Backup Pro. I know, I'm obsessing about saving all of my settings, browser bookmarks, contacts, etc., so I'm probably going overboard with all of the different backups going to SD card, DropBox and Google Drive. The loss of my SMS was the worst actually since my contacts got messed up for some reason when I did the wipe so now I only have facebook and google contacts with no phone numbers!

TitaniumBackup should be able to backup/restore your SMS, settings, and of course browser bookmarks. And it can also sync to as many cloud providers as you wish - just add that to your backup schedule.

So, here's the question. Nandroid Backup keeps asking me for my ClockWork Mod folder and technically I'm not supposed to install/flash a custom recovery on this build because the bootloader is locked (???) on this MF3 build. I may have already screwed myself by flashing ClockWorkMod. I might have to use ODIN to get back to stock MF3 recovery... Anyhoo, where do I find this ClockWork Mod folder so that I can actually complete a Nandroid Backup? A snapshot of my phone is EXACTLY what I need. I also want to backup my settings from my launcher (home screen, wallpaper, etc.).

When I went into ROM Manager, it said that the ROM backup goes into a ClockWorkMod folder but when I copied and pasted this path into Nandroid Backup, it told me that this is an invalid folder! Very confused about how to accomplish the Nandroid Backup... I'm a noob so I was hoping the app could do it for me, but apparently there's a way to accomplish a nandoid backup manually??

So do you for sure have ClockworkMod Recovery installed? You should be able to install it from the ROM Manager app - and the ROM Manager app can then perform the nandroid backups for you. No need for the Nandroid Manager application.

 

[razz2525]

The TB backup is going to a "legacy" folder on my internal SD card. Should it be backing up to my external SD card? I'm assuming that all of the call logs, SMS data, etc., is captured by backing up the system data + app data, correct? I have all of that on a schedule. I also created an "update.zip" file through TB but I'm not sure where that saved to. Is that file in case a flash a new ROM (which I don't plan on doing for awhile on this phone - maybe on the Galaxy Tab 3.0 I just got for Christmas!)

ROM Manager says that I have two recoveries installed TWRP and CWM. I am not sure which version of CWM is installed though. I have yet to successfully boot into CWM recovery though (perhaps because of my bootloader being locked). In the ROM Manager app, I click on Manage and Restore Backups... it asks me for a new backup name. I click it, the phone automatically reboots itself and opens with SAMSUNG - Custom - and an unlocked lock icon. I see recovery starting but then it seems to be the MF3 stock recovery, not CWM or TWRP for that matter.

I just want to back it up but it keeps rebooting. Does it need to do that to do a nandroid backup?

 

[codesplice]

The TB backup is going to a "legacy" folder on my internal SD card. Should it be backing up to my external SD card?

It's hard to say for sure. Android doesn't officially support external SD cards anymore, so each OEM seems to handle it in a different way. The best way to figure out what your different storage points are called may be to manually copy something from your computer directly onto the physical SD card, and then look for that file in a file manager on your phone.

I'm assuming that all of the call logs, SMS data, etc., is captured by backing up the system data + app data, correct? I have all of that on a schedule.

Yes.

I also created an "update.zip" file through TB but I'm not sure where that saved to. Is that file in case a flash a new ROM (which I don't plan on doing for awhile on this phone - maybe on the Galaxy Tab 3.0 I just got for Christmas!)

TiBU can create two different types of update.zips. If you go to Menu > Create "update.zip", it creates a flashable *.zip file which you can use to install Titanium Backup as a system application. If you do it as part of a schedule (or a batch action), the *.zip will be able to install TiBU as a system application AND automatically restore all of your apps and data - which can be pretty handy, but can also cause problems if you backed up all system data too. Remember: always manually restore just a few bits of System Data (wifi access points, SMS, etc). Never do it as a part of a batch!

ROM Manager says that I have two recoveries installed TWRP and CWM. I am not sure which version of CWM is installed though. I have yet to successfully boot into CWM recovery though (perhaps because of my bootloader being locked). In the ROM Manager app, I click on Manage and Restore Backups... it asks me for a new backup name. I click it, the phone automatically reboots itself and opens with SAMSUNG - Custom - and an unlocked lock icon. I see recovery starting but then it seems to be the MF3 stock recovery, not CWM or TWRP for that matter.

I just want to back it up but it keeps rebooting. Does it need to do that to do a nandroid backup?

It sounds like you don't actually have either custom recovery installed - you would generally need to unlock the bootloader in order to replace the stock recovery. You can't make a nandroid from the stock recovery, so your options are to either skip on the whole nandroid thing or else go ahead and unlock it.