TWRP ADB Backup & Restore Question - Nexus 6 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I made an ADB backup via TWRP of each partition (boot, system, data, cache) individually direct to my PC prior to flashing a new ROM. After flashing the new ROM, I realized I forgot to backup texts and wifi netwroks via Titanium Backup. I tried to restore each partition so I could go back and copy the texts and wifi networks but it didn't work. TWRP reported no OS installed and it didn't boot either. I did update the bootloader after I created the backup and am not sure if that's why it's failing.
Is there a way to extract the texts and wifi networks from the backed up file(s)? Do I need to flash a previous bootloader to get the backup to work?
Thanks

pongolo said:
I made an ADB backup via TWRP of each partition (boot, system, data, cache) individually direct to my PC prior to flashing a new ROM. After flashing the new ROM, I realized I forgot to backup texts and wifi netwroks via Titanium Backup. I tried to restore each partition so I could go back and copy the texts and wifi networks but it didn't work. TWRP reported no OS installed and it didn't boot either. I did update the bootloader after I created the backup and am not sure if that's why it's failing.
Is there a way to extract the texts and wifi networks from the backed up file(s)? Do I need to flash a previous bootloader to get the backup to work?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say no but I'm drunk at the moment:laugh:. WiFi and text should be a part of data part of the backup. I see that you backup data so it should be there but I don't think you can do it the way you tried. Let's see what smarter people have to say.

pongolo said:
I made an ADB backup via TWRP of each partition (boot, system, data, cache) individually direct to my PC prior to flashing a new ROM. After flashing the new ROM, I realized I forgot to backup texts and wifi netwroks via Titanium Backup. I tried to restore each partition so I could go back and copy the texts and wifi networks but it didn't work. TWRP reported no OS installed and it didn't boot either. I did update the bootloader after I created the backup and am not sure if that's why it's failing.
Is there a way to extract the texts and wifi networks from the backed up file(s)? Do I need to flash a previous bootloader to get the backup to work?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, I've never heard of a way to extract anything from a TWRP backup file without restoring it. I've never had to flash a different bootloader to get a TWRP restore to work, even after the bootloader was upgraded by the new ROM I installed. I assume that the bootloader is restored when restoring the TWRP backup. How did you restore the backup? Did you restore the entire backup (all of the partitions) at the same time or try to do them one at a time? I've only had luck with restoring the entire backup at the same time.

alryder said:
Nope, I've never heard of a way to extract anything from a TWRP backup file without restoring it. I've never had to flash a different bootloader to get a TWRP restore to work, even after the bootloader was upgraded by the new ROM I installed. I assume that the bootloader is restored when restoring the TWRP backup. How did you restore the backup? Did you restore the entire backup (all of the partitions) at the same time or try to do them one at a time? I've only had luck with restoring the entire backup at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first backup I made which had all the partitions in one file didn't seem to work properly as it did not copy the file locally to the PC. I tried it again but created a separate file for each partition which seemed to work so I have 4 files in total. I restored the files in this order: boot, system, data, cache. When it finished I got a message when exiting TWRP that there was no OS installed. I rebooted anyway and it failed.
Is there any way of restoring it to an emulator running on the PC?

pongolo said:
The first backup I made which had all the partitions in one file didn't seem to work properly as it did not copy the file locally to the PC. I tried it again but created a separate file for each partition which seemed to work so I have 4 files in total. I restored the files in this order: boot, system, data, cache. When it finished I got a message when exiting TWRP that there was no OS installed. I rebooted anyway and it failed.
Is there any way of restoring it to an emulator running on the PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's likely too late for this now but I've backed up to and restored from a single file on my PC by following this guide quite a few times in the past without any issue. My thoughts are if the files won't restore to your phone they probably won't restore to an emulator either but I honestly have no experience with emulators.

Hi, I recently made an adb backup through twrp and now want to open the file with droid explorer. It asks for a password, when entering the one I had on the phone it doesn't open, I even tried restoring it through twrp -> didn't work, with booted phone it asked too for a password -> also didn't work. Do you guys know if twrp has a password which it sets automatically?

alryder said:
It's likely too late for this now but I've backed up to and restored from a single file on my PC by following this guide quite a few times in the past without any issue. My thoughts are if the files won't restore to your phone they probably won't restore to an emulator either but I honestly have no experience with emulators.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the recovery terminal with the restored backup, delete "/data/system/locksettings.db". That should allow you to boot to system without a password. There is a benefit to removing PIN/pattern locks before making backups.

Related

Will a Nandroid restore undo my ROM upgrade?

I wouldn't think so, but I'm really clueless about what's going on...
I have Cyanogen 3.9.8
I want 4.0.2
When I use the CM Updater, I get the dreaded acore Force Close.
So I try the manual approach, putting the 4.0.2 zip file on my SD card's root, then I reboot into recovery, and I perform a Nandroid backup (I run Linux on my computer, and don't use ADB).
Then I do a wipe, before I install the 4.0.2 zip.
Finally, I do I Nandroid restore.
Rebooting takes a long time, which tells me something has been done in the ROM department.
But when I have it up and running, everything seems just as they were before the operation, and when I start CM Updater it says "Running version: CyanogenMod-3.9.8"
I tried again, this time I booted the phone before I did the Nandroid restore, was met with the "factory fresh" Google account login screen (so it looked wiped to me...), then did a reboot to recovery and a Nandroid restore, reboot, checked CM Updater: "Running version: CyanogenMod-3.9.8".
Maybe I need to tweak my ROM updating routines..?
I have 3 partion SD card, so apps2sd is running.
Any help is highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Christopher
I'm kinda confused here, it's Monday morning. Since your trying to upgrade why do you keep doing a nandroid restore? You only want to restore nandroid if you want to go back to that previous point when you made the restore point. If you are just upgrading, just upgrade without restoring nandroid.
do exactly what you did without doing the nandroid restore at the end
Nandroid Restore is pretty simple.
Say you have ROM1 installed and there is an experimental ROM2beta out. So you want to try it.
Do a nandroid backup and it saves it to your sdcard.
The files that are saved are:
recovery.img
data.img
system.img
cache.img
misc.img
boot.img
This is almost every part of your phone except the spl and radio.
When you do a ROM upgrade MOST of the time it only updates the system and boot (some ROMs like Hero wipe/update the system, data, cache and boot.) But if your going from Cyan1 to Cyan2 then the only things being changed are system.img and boot.img. Unless you wipe, everything else should remain the same.
With all that said... you flash from ROM1 to ROM2beta and then do a restore from the ROM1 backup. So what does that mean for your phone? Is it possible to have ROM2beta ROM with the ROM1 system.img and boot.img? No. Since system.img is restoring the key elements for the ROM1 over your newly flashed ROM2beta. Bottom line. You'd be right back to where you started.
Binary100100 said:
With all that said... you flash from ROM1 to ROM2beta and then do a restore from the ROM1 backup. So what does that mean for your phone? Is it possible to have ROM2beta ROM with the ROM1 system.img and boot.img? No. Since system.img is restoring the key elements for the ROM1 over your newly flashed ROM2beta. Bottom line. You'd be right back to where you started.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which explains what I am experiencing.
Thanks, 36!
That means I have misunderstood what Nandroid does.
I thought it would just take a backup of "user changed" files, like application data, configurations, call logs, that sort of things - like MyBackup Pro, more or less.
Guess I will get back to using MyBackup Pro before I upgrade my ROM.
Thanks, this really clarified things - I'm sorry I had to post such a n00b question, but I haven't found any other Nandroid postings telling me in such details what Nandroid backs up (and restores) - but then again I probably haven't looked hard enough! ;-)
~Christopher
Seems I had the same misconception and it seems that Nandroid is not nearly as useful as I had been led to believe by all the posts harping on about it. What I want is a backup of all my user data which I can restore to the updated ROM. Luckily I suspected Nandroid wasn't going to do this and used MyBackup Pro too
MikLSP said:
Seems I had the same misconception and it seems that Nandroid is not nearly as useful as I had been led to believe by all the posts harping on about it. What I want is a backup of all my user data which I can restore to the updated ROM. Luckily I suspected Nandroid wasn't going to do this and used MyBackup Pro too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nandroid can do this you just have to do a backup flash youre rom then push youre data.img
I understand you push the data.img but.....
how...
please
Perform a nandroid backup
Locate the backup on your sdcard under the foler "Nandroid"
Navigate to the last folder (this should be your latest)
Copy all or at least the folder that you want to push back (in this case just data.img to a directory say c:\nandroidbackup)
Open the cmd prompt and make sure that you have your fastboot.exe file in your pc's system32 directory.
If your phone is already on type "adb shell reboot recovery" in the cmd prompt to get to the bootloader and ready for FASTBOOT and then type "exit" to quit the adb shell.
If not then power on your phone while holding the camera button to get to the bootloader and then press the back button on your handset to get to FASTBOOT mode.
On your cmd prompt type "cd" along with the location of the data.img file (example cd c:\nandroidbackup) to move the command prompt to the backup location.
On the cmd prompt type fastboot flash userdata data.img and hit enter.
You should see "sending" followed by "writing" once complete type fastboot reboot and hit enter.
That should do it.
Now mind you that pushing your data across different builds may not work. If you are trying to restore your data on Hero that was previously saved from Cupcake then you're wasting your time. And vice versa. Always store a backup or two on your pc for quick and easy access in case something doesn't work.
In the event that it does not work simply wipe and follow the above directions to restore.
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash userdata data.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
Thanks great thanks mate!!
On the cmd prompt type fastboot flash userdata data.img and hit enter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This step fails for me during the "verifying signature" phase. I believe this is todo with my spl.
Is it possible to use adb to do this? or will the spl still prevent it?

[Q] How to properly make a total backup of your current ROM

I have a very decent working ROM at the moment (4.4.4 rooted xposed gravitybox etc.) and I'm not sure I can live with Lollipop without al those tweaks. So before upgrading to Lollipop (whenever that may be), I want to make a decent backup of my current ROM.
Normally I would do this with TWRP, but the backup doesn't seem to work at the moment. And there doesn't seem to be a properly working version of TWRP.
So how do I make a proper backup of my ROM?
Adb?
A confirmed working version of TWRP?
CWM?
Another?
Jeltel said:
I have a very decent working ROM at the moment (4.4.4 rooted xposed gravitybox etc.) and I'm not sure I can live with Lollipop without al those tweaks. So before upgrading to Lollipop (whenever that may be), I want to make a decent backup of my current ROM.
Normally I would do this with TWRP, but the backup doesn't seem to work at the moment. And there doesn't seem to be a properly working version of TWRP.
So how do I make a proper backup of my ROM?
Adb?
A confirmed working version of TWRP?
CWM?
Another?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use standard tools installed on the phone to dump your partitions. See here for a rundown. I'd recommend backing up /boot, /recovery, /system, /pds, /modem and /fsg.
Ah yes, that's what I was looking for. Thanks
When I restore the mentioned items, will I get back my old installation? Or should I backup more? i.e. userdata for example?
And how to restore all these items? (I know to flash the boot, recovery and system.img via adb).
Yeah, you'd need to backup the data partition too, if you want to keep settings and user data. Remember, dd produces a 1:1 copy of the partition... I prefer to backup personal data selectively. The quick way to do it is by using a backup app: Most use Titanium Backup, but I find Chainfire's Helium does the job well, too. The other way is to use the built-in 'backup' command directly to select a range of files to save (i.e. 'adb backup')...
The partition images can be restored from adb using the reverse version of the command you used to make to the backup, i.e. use dd but with the 'if' and 'of' parameters switched:
Code:
dd if=/path/to/source.img of=/path/to/block/device
Be careful though; if you write the wrong image to the wrong partition, you can damage -- or even hose -- your software environment.
In the case of most partitions, restoring images should be done whilst booted into recovery for safety reasons, rather than overwriting a filesystem whilst it is mounted and in use. If you have the stock recovery installed, you can temporarily boot into TWRP or CWM recovery from a recovery image stored on your computer (i.e. 'adb boot /path/to/recovery.img') and then enable adb from within the custom recovery environment. Then you just use 'adb shell', followed by the 'su' command to switch to the root user account.
For the same reason, you should write the recovery partition backup back to disk from adb within the normal android environment. Again, you must do this after switching to the root user account by issuing the 'su' comand.
Alternatively, you should be able to write all the images from fastboot mode (i.e. 'adb reboot lootloader'). For example:
Code:
adb fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
AFAIK, fastboot will accept standard images created with dd, but I have never tried it on a Moto G, so YMMV... Maybe someone else would care to comment on this?

[Q] Brick Help vs980 LG G2

Currently irate because I already typed all this then hit enter to be told I can only register once from this ip.
Any way...
Rooted vs98027a Android 4.4.2 via Stump Root
Used AutoRec which installed TWRP 2.7.00
Backed up Stock Rom
Mount button is missing
Rebooted into Stock to transfer backup to PC and place "cm-12-20150603-NIGHTLY-vs980.zip" as well as Lp gapps.
Rebooted back into TWRP
Wiped, then Installed the CM Nightly, wiped cache and rebooted.
Stuck in LG Boot loop.
Use buttons to boot back into TWRP, open Restore and It's just a blank navigation window.
TWRP just became ****ing worthless
Tried to wipe and possibly install same CM again. Still boot looping.
Tried getting to download mode, but it reboots before installing driver.
I have not a clue as to what to do next.
I can't get it to mount.
ADB Sideload Fails.
Terminal Command lets me select a blank navigation window.
And my original file structure is in like sdcard/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/ etc.
Please help, or at least redeem CM and TWRP's value somehow, because this is bs.
I sort of fixed it.
Restore showed up blank, because within the many /0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0 a new TWRP folder would be made or course containing nothing.
I also learned the adb is this magnificent goddess that can do things even when your phone can't.
Throughout further reading I glimpsed upon something about "loki" files that aren't compatible with specific versions of twrp or something. So If you've also been through this and still feel brave enough to flash a custom, then make sure you get the newest version of twrp...
As for the Restore issue, assuming you have a backup saved on pc, wipe everything then adb push the whole file (TWRP/BACKUPS/BLAHBLAH/BLAUGHESDIHF) to /sdcard/.... then it should show up in restore, if it doesn't then use file manager to place it in the right TWRP directory... You can also use the file manager to move the restore folder to the "correct" twrp folder if you don't have it backed up.

Trouble Restoring a Nandroid Backup After Flashing Update

TL;DR: Tried updating OS using flashable zip thru TWRP, didn't work so used fastboot method, got it working on stock but can't restore nandroid backup (not even /data partition), have app data that I need, what can I do?
Background
I picked up the Nexus 6 not too long ago and I soon decided to unlock the bootloader, install a custom recovery, and root it. Thanks to the info here on XDA, that was painless. A few weeks ago, I got a notification for an OTA update. Having read that OTA updates no longer work for modified /system partitions, I knew that I wouldn't be able to update it.
I ignored the update for a while until I finally decided to look into how I could make the update yesterday. I really didn't want to deal with setting up the device the way I like it again so I was hoping to find a method that didn't nuke the /data or /data/media partitions. I found what looked to be the easiest method which entailed flashing a zip from TWRP.
What I Did
I ran a nandroid backup before doing anything and naively figured that would be enough. Afterwards, I wiped the system and caches for what I thought would be "good measure", flashed the zip, and was surprised to see that TWRP was reporting no OS was installed. I was under the impression that the system partition was going to be overwritten.
To make it short, I tried restoring from the nandroid backup but it would fail at the system part with TWRP reporting something along the lines of 'Cannot restore System -- mounted read only'. I hopped on fastboot, flashed the images provided by Google, and was back on stock. I tried restoring the backup once again but to no avail. I even tried restoring just the data partition but that didn't go well either.
Much Regret Section
Now, I know I should have backed up the apps separately with something like Titanium Backup but I had a lapse in judgement and assumed I could just revert back if anything went wrong. Unfortunately, I have applications with data that I can't easily get back. I tried using Nandroid Manager to restore applications from the backup but, as with past experience with the app, not all data is recovered.
Is there anything that I could try to either revert back to that backup or at least get the applications in data back the way they were prior to updating?
Wow, I feel like a doofus. After quite some digging on Google and XDA, I found the remedial solution to my problem in this post. For simplicity's sake, here's a quote:
Nevermind, I finally figured it out. In TWRP under MOUNT you have to uncheck "make system partition read only". Now my restore is working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that isn't clear enough, he's referring to the first page/menu of TWRP which has the 'Mount' button that leads you to a page with a checkbox at the bottom that is ticked and makes the system partition read only.
EDIT: As it turns out, this was only my first problem. After trying to restore the backup, I receive the same error message that I got when I attempted to only recover /data. I get the following error: 'extractTarFork() process ended with ERROR: 255'. From what I gathered online, it looks like some file may have been modified? The only thing that I did to the backup was move it from the phone over to my computer before flashing the image. Other than that, Nandroid Manager I believe decompressed it. However, now I'm stumped and I'm not sure how to proceed here.
EDIT 2: This was likely due to Nandroid Manager decompressing the backup. Luckily, I still had the uncompressed copy on my computer. I restored the backup but the phone would get stuck loading. I tried flashing the older images that I had before updating and then restoring the backup but that didn't make a difference. Finally, I gave up and salvaged what I could from the backup using Titanium Backup.

[Need Help] Getting createtarfork error 255 in TWRP

I backed up dtbo partition and then tried to backup other partitions but it's giving me this error and failing. I'm using the trwp that I got from the xda twrp flash guide. Please help.
Anyone?
same prob on k20 pro still no solution. RIP
I had the same problem and a simple solution:
Copy your TWRP backup from phone to you PC.
Install the ROM you would restore, after boot set your pin/pattern.
Reboot to TWRP and TWRP asks for your pin/pattern.
Copy your backup back to phone.
Restore backup.
It should work now.
Maybe check the twrp log.
I had the same error and it was because i had dual app feature turned on for an app.
I also read it can happen even if you don't use that feature.

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