Recently I have not been able to connect to 3G(HSDPA) and I tried rebooting a few times without luck. (Stock N1 2.1 -> 2.2 Froyo RC)
So, I did a factory reset. Before you go "moron thats why you are missing all your apps!", I watched in Google IO a person saying "if you have ever upgraded your android phone, you know there is no need to re-download all your apps, because the data is all in our server"
And, in the (supposedly not public) Android Market Website accessed from a PC, you can login and see all the android devices you have and all the apps you have installed in each.
So after reading the warning messages, I went ahead and reset it. After logging back onto my google account, guess what? All my apps are gone.
At first, I was okay with it, I have way too many useless stuffs anyway. Then I went to Market, wondering if I can view my "downloads" list, to my surprise my download list is empty except showing one app i purchased and 3 "default" apps that already came installed in Froyo.
I went back to Settings>Privacy>
and I see these two options:
Backup my settings
Automatic Restore (Restore applications' data from backup when they are installed)
I mean, am I misunderstanding something or missing some info here? I thought from my understanding, if say I buy a brand new Nexus One, and log onto my account, the least I should be able to do is log onto market and see what have i previously downloaded on my OLD DEVICE, right?
I have re-downloaded all the apps I need, I just wanna know if this feature (as the way I understand it) exists.
Thanks guys.
that auto download of apps thing from Google IO is supposed to be a Gingerbread feature for android 3.0
lol i surely missed the "Gingerbread" note and i feel like a complete idiot now
nevertheless, thank you so much for the reply, at least we know it will come !
Actually you're both wrong. The saved downloads list has been a feature since 1.6, it just never works correctly. Usually saving only purchased apps and a few free ones. The auto-restore is a Froyo feature and worked almost perfectly for me when I upgraded [it installed all the ones it remembered but because of the aforementioned bugginess of the save list, I had to restore about 20% manually with Titanium Backup]. The other new feature that was announced at I/O was data restore. This too is a Froyo feature, but like apps to SD, it is an API which must be implemented by the individual app developers. The data restore feature is fully functional in the OS right now, it just has nothing to restore because it needs the apps to tell it what to save. Within a couple weeks of the official Froyo rollout I think you can expect to see most active developers implement the 2.2 APIs in their apps.
Ok, I understand that we should have backups with clockworkmod and/or titanium to avoid these issues.
However, what happens if I don't have a backup of an app that I've paid for and somehow lose it?
Does the market recognize that I purchased the app before and let me re-download? Do I have to re-purchase the app?
With itunes for example, if you don't have a backup of purchased music you have to jump through flaming hoops to get it back and you're still not guaranteed they will work with you.
How do this work for us?
Thanks,
Neudle
Short answer is yes if you downloaded from the Market and it's tied to your gmail account it will let you re-download it provided that it shows up in your Market at the time you want to download it.
That's the way it worked for me. When I flashed Vegan and did the market fix every app I had paid for in the past (even on my old phones) synced and downloaded. Even setcpu which wasn't even functional till this week.
FWIW I use the USB hookup to back up apk files to a computer, an external fixed disk or ZIP disks (a good use for all the old but functioning Iomega stuff around here). I do this even before installing a new app, just in case. If I have a need to do so, I just drag the folder contents back to the tablet. And with files on the computer, Carbonite also backs up the files which enables retrieval from any computer I may use when traveling. I put all bookmarks onto the Web space included with the ISP account. It makes a complete recovery or transfer to a new tablet just about as quick and easy as anything I could think of.
I use Titanium... Any app I d-load from the market or elsewhere I back up.
Even if I do not intend to use it in the future... Who knows, when time comes I might need it.
Do not rely on the publisher to keep the app on the Market. I have purchased a couple of apps that are no longer available to download on the market that aren't available anymore, Transformers G1 comes to mind. Best bet is to buy Titanium Backup and set it up for Dropbox syncing.
Thanks for the help
Thank you for the replies.
I've only purchased one app (dungeon defenders), all the others have been free and most have been downloaded for side-loading anyway.
After I got the system rebuilt I logged onto google and dungeon defenders showed up as purchased in the market.
I'll try to keep titanium up to date but still glad to know they honor the original purchase.
Thanks again,
Neudle
Am new to Android two weeks ago. I had to have my new SGS replaced and thought that all the phone settings and apps were being synced with my google account (I've always had Background Data and Auto-sync checked on as well as my google accounts set to sync on for Gmail, Contacts and Calendar). Having powered on the new replacement and entered my google account settings I was expecting it to recognise that the new device was not in sync with google and offer to push everything back down to the phone.
All that has happened is my Contacts, Gmail and Calendar are in sync but the phone settings & previously installed apps through the market place are not.
If I go into the Android Market Place on the phone and look at one of the previous apps I had installed such as BBC iPlayer it shows my rating and comment so it knows its me but only offers the option to reinstall the app again from the market, i.e. finding each app manually and reinstalling. Is it not supposed to restore the apps you have previously installed? I reinstalled this app from the market but it hasn't restored the user data associated with the app.
Having dug a little further whilst writing this, I notice that if I log into the Android Market through a web browser on the PC I can see in the "Orders" screen the apps that I previously downloaded. However, on the next tab "Settings" shows My Devices with the old and new phone listed. There doesn't seem to be a way to remove the old phone from my account or tell it that the new phone actually replaces the old so just give me the old data to the new device.
Being new to Android I did think that this was meant to work slicker than this, I hope someone can help out a newbie please?
If you go into the Market and look at My Apps, you should be able to redownload them all (I think an option exists to download them all with a single click "update all" or something like that). Most people backup their applications etc using Tatanium Backup so that they easily restore user apps after ROM upgrades etc. You can also backup SMS messages using an app from the Market.
When you first enter a new Google account into your phone, there is a check box to restore your apps from the Market. This actually is usually best NOT to use since it can cause a sudden massive download.
It is in all ways safer and smarter to just go into MyApps and reinstall the apps one by one. It may take a little longer, but it is a better method.
Titanium Backup is a good option for restoring apps after you flash a new rom, but it won't do you any good if you change phones.
Unfortunately that isn't the case.
If I go into the Android Market Place on the phone and "My Apps" I don't see the apps that were installed on the old phone and thus no option from My Apps to reinstall them.
The only apps that are present in My Apps are those that were I guess added by Three's flavour of this 2.2 OS, which are the Three app plus Google Maps and YouTube.
Their seems to be something wrong with market place if it is meant to work how your suggesting. If I log into market place through my PC that google account sees both the old and new phone but doesn't on the phone offer the old apps to the new phone.
I'm pretty sure that when I entered my google account details earlier that there was no option box to restore as I would have taken that option as I have an unlimited data plan.
I wonder if I should do a factory reset and re enter the account details again but I fear that it will just see this new phone in the market place and not the old one as they obviously have some sort of device id.
Unfortunately it looks like Titanium is just for rooted devices and am not ready to go down that route (no pun intended) just yet.
If the apps and app data are suppose to sync with google then it seems like an unnecessary duplication of work to redo something outside of what should be part of Android natively.
If I have to install a backup app then I would want to find one that backs up all the phone settings, apps and app data to the SD card which I can then move over to the PC where there is obviously more storage. It would be nice to find such an app that provides a selective restore so that it would also be compatible with a new different model phone so that only the apps and app data could be restored.
Hey,
Has anyone ever looked into how the Whatsapp Backup is stored? It can be used after reinstalling the app, but not after hard resetting/flashing/etc. So it should be stored on the phone, but not the normal isolated storage of the app since I can reinstall it and use the backup then.
Is there special access necessary or could other apps also access (and modify/export) this backup? I'm asking this because I hope to find a way to make a backup that really is useful, I almost only write via whatsapp because SMS cost way more than internet here. Thanks!
why do you think whatsapp isnt useing isolated storage? shure it is, but you still cant access it - unless you have a interopt unlocked device
the reason you can restore, is that the app id stays the same.. you could try to deploy an older (uncrypted) whatsapp xap to your phone, if the app id still stays the same (and im not shure it does! actually i think it doesnt..) you would gain access... again, thats total theory! i havent tryed this, and it has propably the potential to mess up your backup...
maybe GoodDayToDie has some more info about the app-id thing.. i'll also do a quick research
tfBullet said:
why do you think whatsapp isnt useing isolated storage? shure it is, but you still cant access it - unless you have a interopt unlocked device
the reason you can restore, is that the app id stays the same.. you could try to deploy an older (uncrypted) whatsapp xap to your phone, if the app id still stays the same (and im not shure it does! actually i think it doesnt..) you would gain access... again, thats total theory! i havent tryed this, and it has propably the potential to mess up your backup...
maybe GoodDayToDie has some more info about the app-id thing.. i'll also do a quick research
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply! I din't know files in the isolated storage keep being there after you uninstall the app..
I tried deploying an old Version (1.4) of Whatsapp and it replaced the current one, so it should use the same app id. I didn't find anything in the isolated storage, but the backup is still there when I reinstall it from the store. I'll try launching the deployed app first now.
have you checked out the IsolatedStorageSettings?
Let me have a quick look where this thing is on my harddrive... when i find it, i'll be able to tell you where / how it saves the backup
tfBullet said:
have you checked out the IsolatedStorageSettings?
Let me have a quick look where this thing is on my harddrive... when i find it, i'll be able to tell you where / how it saves the backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, I have no real clue how to do that, the only thing I can is deploying apps and watching their isolated storage thanks!!
they used "messages.sdf" & "contacts.sdf" before, but then at some version they started to migrate this files into a database.. not shure where it gets stored, or if you can access it with simply browsing the IsoStoreage... ill make a quick test project to test out how or if we could access it..
EDIT: actually i was talking **** the .sdf files are already databases, and the data still resides there... and forgot to mention: even if you couldn't see the database files, you should see the user-picture thumbnails that reside in "cphotos/" + some-sha1-hashed-userinfo...
IsoStore is cleared when an app is uninstalled. So far as I know, this is instant, as part of the app removal process, although I suppose I haven't actually checked that. However, apps can (and many do) implement a backup situation to cover this use case by using a unique identifier that survives a re-install. There are several places such IDs can come from. Since the one you have survives app installs but *not* OS reflashing (even though you presumably sign on with the same Live ID afterward), I'm guessing it's a value that uniquely identifies your OS install and is randomly generated the first time the OS boots. Re-flashing counts as a new install, I guess.
I'd have to investigate further to be sure. There could be other mechanics at play, such as the OS keeping the data around for a short time in case you re-install the app, or the app storing its data in some other (off-phone) location. It's not storing it in some special folder within the phone, though; there's nowhere else it could!
Backup history with Whatapp on Android. Then check the backup file on:
/sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases/msgstore.db.crypt
Or
/data/data/com.whatsapp/databases/msgstore.db and wa.db (root)
Coweri said:
Backup history with Whatapp on Android. Then check the backup file on:
/sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases/msgstore.db.crypt
Or
/data/data/com.whatsapp/databases/msgstore.db and wa.db (root)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but this is Windows Phone, not android..
@GoodDayToDie so, there is no simple way like deploying an app with the same ID and trying to access the backup with it?
Since the data would have been deleted when the old app was removed (and since you can't sideload an app with the same Product ID as an existing Store app), no, that won't work (well, it didn't in WP7; I guess you could try again here; some things are somewhat less secure now than before).
th0mas96 said:
GoodDayToDie so, there is no simple way like deploying an app with the same ID and trying to access the backup with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait for a interop-unlock... thats the way to go in this case.
Until then, you can send your conversations to yourself by mail (option form the context menue)
GoodDayToDie said:
IsoStore is cleared when an app is uninstalled. So far as I know, this is instant, as part of the app removal process, although I suppose I haven't actually checked that. However, apps can (and many do) implement a backup situation to cover this use case by using a unique identifier that survives a re-install. There are several places such IDs can come from. Since the one you have survives app installs but *not* OS reflashing (even though you presumably sign on with the same Live ID afterward), I'm guessing it's a value that uniquely identifies your OS install and is randomly generated the first time the OS boots. Re-flashing counts as a new install, I guess.
I'd have to investigate further to be sure. There could be other mechanics at play, such as the OS keeping the data around for a short time in case you re-install the app, or the app storing its data in some other (off-phone) location. It's not storing it in some special folder within the phone, though; there's nowhere else it could!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GoodDayToDie, any news about this Whatsapp backup feature in Windows Phone? Is it possible to utilize this feature as an "ordinary" developer?
I would have to reverse engineer the app to see how its backup feature works. The most likely explanation - that it's storing the backup "in the cloud" using the device ID (which resets when you do a hard reset, I think) - is easily possible for any app so long as you provide the storage space...
GoodDayToDie said:
I would have to reverse engineer the app to see how its backup feature works. The most likely explanation - that it's storing the backup "in the cloud" using the device ID (which resets when you do a hard reset, I think) - is easily possible for any app so long as you provide the storage space...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That could be an explanation. But then the Whatsapp developers could easily offer a full backup, as on other platforms, linked to the phone number or something. Then you could restore the messages even after a phone exchange. But who knows what's in their heads ...
GoodDayToDie said:
I would have to reverse engineer the app to see how its backup feature works. The most likely explanation - that it's storing the backup "in the cloud" using the device ID (which resets when you do a hard reset, I think) - is easily possible for any app so long as you provide the storage space...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, it doesn't seem to be online.. it backups pretty big chats extremely fast with 2 bars of GPRS, so it can't be via internet.. it even backups without connection at all. That's the weird thing.. how are apps even allowed to store files that keep being there after an uninstall?
There are a couple really sneaky ways you could do that; one that comes to mind is creating a fake "image" or "ringtone" or similar, serializing the data to it, and then looking for it the "first" time the app is run after installing. However, I'm definitely more curious now. There are folders which apps can request permissions to write to, but usually that's a trick limited to "second-party" apps (OEMs, etc.) and prohibited for third parties.
I've already looked into the code, as far as i can tell there is no online backup feature. it just stores the conversations in a database.
And to answer yout question schluff: no there is absolutley no way the usual developera to utilize this.
btw: @GoodDayToDie could you provide us the newest WhatsApp XAP (2.11.312.0)?
When I get the chance to extract it of my computer, yeah. It's really hard to get full FS access working these days, so I'm looking into other ways to access the install folders and storage of other Apps.
here you go
edit: I've changed nothing, so it's the whole install folder in this zip file
Thanks for the extraction! Obviously, I can't do anything with it
However, if anyone is interested in this too, in the following versions it seems to backup to the SD card, at least @Nazwzil8 reported so at twitter: https://twitter.com/Nawzil8/status/410486248156172288 he reported a lot about whatsapp, he seems a legit beta tester.