So a friend of mine updated his T-Mobile UK Samsung Galaxy S to the official 2.2.1 JPY firmware using Odin a few weeks ago. This went well, and is the same firmware that I've had on my unbranded SGS since December.
However, he has an interesting problem. Some of his apps (Handcent, Dolphin HD, plus a few others) seem to forget all of their settings every time the app is exited. For example, every time he goes back into Dolphin it enters the setup wizard as it it's being ran for the first time. This doesn't happen on every app, and it doesn't happen every time.
I noticed there are a couple of other threads on here with people reporting similar issues on custom ROMs (with no solution), but this is a stock ROM from samsungfirmware.com and certainly doesn't happen on my SGS, so it's not the ROM to blame.
Anyone know of a fix?
This question posted in the last few days .
jje
As I said in my post "I noticed there are a couple of other threads on here with people reporting similar issues ... (with no solution)". I wasn't being lazy and just starting another thread without doing some research first. I've read the other threads and they do not contain a solution that will work for him.
I'm assuming you're referring specifically to this thread? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=992335 In my friend's case, rooting is not an option, so this solution won't work for him.
However, based on that it looks like a factory reset may fix it. If I don't come back people reading this can assume it worked.
Hello
I experimented the same issue.
Looking at some log traces event it reported some permissions errors on intestinal filesystem like database location access write errors. This can explain setting persistence trouble.
After various workaround, bypass or others kind of fallback I did a full reinstallation of filesystem including a wipe data of the system. Take care to backup application and sensible data SMS, photo...
Since all is working fine and no more problems with settings
I don't know if it's helping you.
This is just my personal experience on this same problem.
Perhaps more simple solution is possible
Regards
Gilles
Thanks. So far so good after a Factory Reset. If it were my phone I'd be looking at Logcat, etc, too, but it's a bit hard to do remotely.
It's odd how some apps saved their settings fine, but some don't.
A factory reset did fix it... for a while. But then other apps started suffering from the problem.
So I've been researching this a bit more today. Here's what I've discovered:
The problem is unique to Samsung Galaxy S phones, and appears to be only ones running 2.2.1 (but maybe 2.2. too?).
Samsung have renamed /data/data to /dbdata/databases, and shared preferences for applications are persisting in this folder even if the application is uninstalled. If you install the app again, the app becomes a different user from the one that owns the shared preferences.
For example - If you install some random application and you look at its process running with the ps command, it will show as "app_XX", where XX is some number. For our example here let's say it shows as "app_55". When it then saves its settings in /dbdata/databases the folder the settings are saved in will have owner (shown by ls -l) as "app_55" too. That's fine, and normal.
The seed of the problem is sewn when you uninstall the app. Those shared preferences are not removed. Even using the "Clear data" option before uninstalling doesn't seem to help. If you then install the app again and look at the output of ps you'll see the new app is "app_56". The shared preferences are still there from last time with owner "app_55", hence the permissions error when it tries to save its settings, as user app_56 cannot modify user app_55's files.
A factory reset obviously cures it as this, at least temporarily, as it wipes the data in /dbdata/databases.
If you're rooted, you can go into /dbdata/databases and delete the relevent folder for the application that's having the problem. It will be recreated with the correct owner next time the app saves its settings.
I didn't try chown to change the owner to the correct one, but maybe that's a way to keep the old settings and correct the problem.
Bingo. No wonder my titanium backup is not remembering the preference settings.
Titanium Backup recently enabled conversion of app databases to a new WAL format. Is this safe to do? Can any dev's shed any light on this new file type?
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
Avoid
This ****s me I did this on my Samsung Galaxy, it WIPED ALL SETTINGS on my phone. no warning that it is dangerous!
Had to revert back, and then restore all settings again.
I learned quickly not to do anything that hasn't been discussed and tested by these talented people with XDA. And its still not 100 percent safe even then. I noticed by the release notes for the new TB Pro that its for all 2.3 roms, recognized by sqlite3, and is supposed to be faster than the old app database file type. What I don't know is the side effects, and what effect it has on rom updates applied over the change
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Stock Kernel, Custom lite De-bloat)
Settings wiped out confirmed plus MAYBE a few very destructive glitch (Unconfirmed by others):
Power button only lists one entry: Power off instead of the original three - Confirmed by bonks
Home button not working (In respect, task switcher not available) - Confirmed by 0nebukadnezar0
Search button not working - Confirmed by bonks
Android market not connecting - Confirmed and solution provided by 0nebukadnezar0
SMS wiped
Nexus S Stock ROM 2.3.4 rooted (Kernel Netarchy Nexus 1.3.7)
Added symptoms :
Lost APN settings (0nebukadnezar0 on Galaxy S)
Screen lock not working (0nebukadnezar0 on Galaxy S and bonks on Motorola Droid 3 rooted)
Facebook authentication lost (0nebukadnezar0 on Galaxy S)
Some other application's settings (0nebukadnezar0 on Galaxy S and bonks on Motorola Droid 3 rooted)
Do not run this batch until further update!
Do not use this function!
I've also been hit by this. I paid for this software and it should really have a warning that:
1. it affects all application data: I was under the impression it affects only the TB internal database
2. it converts user data of the complete device: I had thought twice if this had been clear
3. one should create an up-to-date backup first
Instead it highly praised that this is a performance improvement traded against little higher storage usage. Why shouldn't I want to enable such a feature?
Had I known the implications I would've created a full backup first and thought twice. Now I had to go back to a three day old backup. My phone was completely wiped. No error message. Still some settings were missing after restore: TB still seems not to be able to correctly restore ActiveSync settings, and all widgets were gone from my start pages.
This is extremely unsatisfactory for an app I paid for. Please, developer: Improve your warnings in an application like a backup app which handles sensible data.
I noticed it in the change log, and was like " Uhh... why, in the last 6 months, have I not heard of this new super fast database conversion before now... I better ask someone before I mess with it"
Luckily I did, I'm still running the stock rom minus vcast and a few additional bloaties removes, and have dreaded altering anything without the bootloader unlocked, as this is my second device, the first returned returned DOA. I appreciate your testimonials guys, our stories will save the devs a few headaches, and will give titanium devs some live input on the batch operation. If Pzouza or Chevy has any comments on it, the input would be welcomed, as this is the first most of us have heard of it
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Stock Kernel, Custom lite De-bloat)
verkerria said:
I noticed it in the change log, and was like " Uhh... why, in the last 6 months, have I not heard of this new super fast database conversion before now... I better ask someone before I mess with it"
Luckily I did, I'm still running the stock rom minus vcast and a few additional bloaties removes, and have dreaded altering anything without the bootloader unlocked, as this is my second device, the first returned returned DOA. I appreciate your testimonials guys, our stories will save the devs a few headaches, and will give titanium devs some live input on the batch operation. If Pzouza or Chevy has any comments on it, the input would be welcomed, as this is the first most of us have heard of it
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Stock Kernel, Custom lite De-bloat)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 Droid3 rooted and de-bloat via titanium
Same thing happened to me. Not very pleased. Titanium Backup usually warns against dangerous options. This batch option not having one gives a false sense of security. I'm restoring a month old nandroid backup via clockworkmod now and then hopefully restoring my TB backups.
same thing on my Galaxy S:
- home button does not work anymore
- Market "Server Error", this has been cleaned through "Clear Data" under Manage applications
- lost 3G settings, it was necessary to enter the APN configuration manually
- screen lock does not work anymore
- lost the facebook authentication
- some other apps have lost her settings
Titanium Backup DB modes
Rooted Droid 3 with TB pro
Power button only lists two entries rather than I think the three or four it had.
Home button not working
Search button not working
Screen lock not working
Some other apps have lost their settings
-> Widgets needed to be readded
-> All email accounts had to resync
What I did:
Wokeup, saw TB update, downloaded & installed, tried new feature in TB for faster databases.
Ran the "Convert DBs to Rollback Journal mode (works on all ROMs)" batch process. It completed successfully.
Ran the "Convert DBs to WAL mode (faster, slightly bigger, Android 2.3+ only)" batch process. It completed successfully.
Hit the home button, tried to open an app. Force Close. Tried a few more apps, all force closed.
Restarted.
The white animated "DROID" screen infinitely repeated itself.
Removed battery.
Powered On.
Successfully reached Home screen (ADWLauncher EX).
My fault for trying these new features without looking into it first, but I did not think they would be dangerous.
Now, are Journal mode and WAL mode the two available types of DBs. Could I just run the Rollback Journal mode to revert back? Is this safe?
Their wiki says it's safe but has anyone tried this? matrixrewriter.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=TB+-+Technical+FAQ&highlight=rollback%20journal
(#32 and #33)
Woah, glad I googled this before running it on my Galaxy Tab. Will avoid.
From Titanium Support:
We're truly sorry about this issue. Yes, today we discovered a terrible bug in the SGS2 stock ROM, which explains what happened. Titanium Backup has converted your databases to WAL fine, but the SGS2 stock ROM itself does not support WAL properly: instead of opening the WAL databases, it will silently erase them and then claim that the open has succeeded!
Before allowing any conversion to WAL, Titanium Backup performed a verification, which we have tested and properly fails on older ROMs. On the SGS2 though, the verification passes because the test database is fine after the conversion - well yes it's fine, but it's empty.
We have improved the WAL testing code and we will release an updated version as quickly as possible. The new version has been tested well on SGS2 and detects the problem properly (ie: it prevents conversion to WAL format). This only applies to stock ROMs though, as CyanogenMod (for example) does not contain the buggy Samsung code and fully supports WAL without issues.
If you have no backups of the erased databases, we're very sorry to confirm that it cannot be recovered, unfortunately. Please accept our deepest apologies for this issue. If you would like a refund, please let us know because we stand behind our product.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I converted back to journal mode but this did not fix any of my issues. I'm guessing that the lockscreen, home button, and search buttons had some kind of association to a database from the manufacture install which I don't know how to recover. Any ideas?
Bad Titanium Pro!
GldRush98 said:
Woah, glad I googled this before running it on my Galaxy Tab. Will avoid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ditto to that, I was just about to hit that button and thought maybe I should do some googling...
All, the standard rule to all root users, is to do full nandroid backups before making any serious changes to your phone. changing database formats is a major change. You should have all done a full nandroid, then a full tb backup. That's the main rule of thumb if you start down the road to root. Anytime you play with root focused apps, you're playing with fire. At some point we all get burned. I have plenty of times, but always get back with a nand restore. we all learn eventually. I know I've messed up a few phones this way, but that's the joy of going the root route. Its all in fun.
I wasn't aware of this feature and definitely will be trying it now that its been posted.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
Ok, after doing a full nandbackup, and TB backup of User Apps. I did successfully migrate all the DBs to WAL format. I then rebooted right into CWM, formated the cache to avoid any old data crap, rebooted back into normal phone. Ran my most common apps and had no issues I've got 217 user apps on my phone, I think I ran 20 of the core apps I use. no issues in the first 1 hour. I did confirm all the previously posted issues and experience none of them within the first hour of testing. This is probably due to me not messing with the system apps. I'll test that next for the fun of it and report back. But, I can safely say, in my case, I had no issues with this conversion of "user" apps.
Power button only lists two entries rather than I think the three or four it had.
Home button not working
Search button not working
Screen lock not working
Some other apps have lost their settings
Widgets needed to be readded
All email accounts had to resync
Stay tuned for round 2 of testing
---------- Post added at 10:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 PM ----------
Ok Round 2 WAL conversion and testing completed.
Everything works perfectly. Not sure why everyone else is having issues. I would say anyone else should be free to do the conversion. Again, this is how I did mine. I did a full nandbackup, in case i screwed things up and messed my phone up. Did a full TB backup of system apps. Then did the conversion to the system apps. Immediately after rebooted into CWM. I formatted the cache. Rebooted, let my phone load up. I did notice during the first 5-10 seconds of the loading home apps and widgets half of the widgets gave a widget error, but I was patient enough to let the phone get fully loaded. After that all widgets did start back up just fine. I tested all reported bugs and errors everyone else had, and I had no issues with anything. I'll keep an eye on things for the next few days. I'm a heavy, nerdy user of my phone, and am constantly tweaking it so i'll know if I screwed something up and report back.
Widgets all loaded fine after reboot.
Search works as it should
Long Press Power button pulls up standard 4 options.
Home works fine
Long press home pulls up all recent items (do keep in mind if you reboot there are no recent items so you have to go into apps for it to tell you recent items)
Lockscreen works as it should.
I would say this WAL conversion for both System and User apps works just fine. But, that is only in my case apparently. I am using Steel Droid 3 (v1).
Good luck to the rest of you. Oh, and I have no affiliation to TB, but I must admit that its one of my most used Root apps since it helps me unscrew myself when I do fudge things up. It is just so much faster to fix mistakes than a full nandrestore. Albeit the NandRestore is my Plan B fix it solution TB is plan A.
Where exactly is this option? I havent seen anything and just redid apps for data
WAL DB Conversion Success
I followed Izeltokatl's information by performing a full backup with Titanium Backup and ClockWorkMod via ROM manager, then updating the system and app DBs to WAL via TB, then immediately booting into recovery and wiping the cache.
I'm happy to report complete success updating my Ideos U8150 running Gingerbread 2.3.7 to WAL DB without any problems.
Even after wiping cache, the quick search function was force closing, so I just restored it from TiBu.
So what are real benefits of Wal or Rollback Journal databases of android. Is it really faster? Are there any reasons to make Rollback journal conversion on unsupported roms?
Has anybody tested it?
Some good reading.
http://www.sqlite.org/draft/wal.html
The ROM I was running was using SQLite version 3.7.2, and I unchecked 'force system SQLite' in preferences and it upgraded to the TiBu optimized version which is quite a bit newer. Seems to speed things up slightly if you convert to WAL.
Updated yesterday to Pie from Lollipop. Did a Samsung and Google Backup, since i was not rooted to use titanium for apps and settings.
after restoring though it seems lots of things are missing. I got all apps restored, but most settings and app data are gone. Good thing i got a cloud sync, from ones that support it, like viber/whatsapp and my expense tracker app. But lots of things have gone missing. I copied the entire filesystem (the part that is available without, rooting at least). Maybe i can get something back?
Most importantly i'm missing my samsung notes data, calendar entries that were stored on phone (google calendar entries got synced back succesfully), and camscanner data. I forgot to sync that last one to the cloud. Also been missing save game progress from the games i got installed
Also novalauncher layout got wiped. I even made sure to create a backup, but after the restore it wasnt on the options. If the backup file is not stored on the rooted part of the filesystem, maybe i can get it back from the full disk copy ive made
Will post once i remember something else of importance.