How does Helium work?

ruhban

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So I've backed everything up using Helium then I made a backup on my PC of the Helium (or Carbon) folder. I then reset my Nexus 7 2013 and I now want to put all of this content back onto my device. I've pasted the Carbon / Helium folder into my 7, after installing Helium on it after the reset, and it's showing up with no apps to restore it with. What have I done wrong?
 

Paul627g

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Try making a backup of anything, that should " populate " the new Carbon folder and give the app something to point to. Then turn around and paste your previous Carbon folder in there and hopefully it will recognize it when you go to restore.

I think that is how I did it in the past.
 

evilfantasy

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I might repeat myself here so bear with my thought process. :confused:

There are two backup options with Helium. Backup app (apk) and data or only backup app data. Either way you will need to install the app again to have something to restore the app data to. When you open Helium and look at the restore options it will tell you if you need to install the app first. You click that and it takes you to the app store to install the app. Then you can restore the data to it.
 

ruhban

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I might repeat myself here so bear with my thought process. :confused:

There are two backup options with Helium. Backup app (apk) and data or only backup app data. Either way you will need to install the app again to have something to restore the app data to. When you open Helium and look at the restore options it will tell you if you need to install the app first. You click that and it takes you to the app store to install the app. Then you can restore the data to it.

Still no luck :( I feel like giving up on Android.
 

evilfantasy

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This might help. When I look at the SD Card on my phone with my computer the Helium folder is located at:

PC\Galaxy S4\SD Card\carbon

So you may need to rename the folder to carbon instead of Helium.
 

ruhban

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It's still not working :S It's currently called Helium but for some reason there was a Carbon folder as well so I tried naming the folder which holds all of the backups as both Carbon and Helium. None of them worked.
 

evilfantasy

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Are there a bunch of files in the original Helium or Carbon folder? If so then that is your backups.

How about running a backup now to see what folder the backup is created in. Then copy/paste the contents of the Helium-Carbon folder that you saved into the folder that Helium used for the new backup. Don't rename the new folder and only copy the contents of the Helium folder, not the Helium folder itself.

I know it can be done. When I got my new phone I installed the apps I wanted and then used the Helium backup from my tablet to transfer the app data onto the phone.
 

evilfantasy

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Also. Once you have the files transfered to the new device you need to run the Helium restore to get the data restored. Just putting the files on the SD Card is not enough. You still need to merge the data.
 

dpham00

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It's still not working :S It's currently called Helium but for some reason there was a Carbon folder as well so I tried naming the folder which holds all of the backups as both Carbon and Helium. None of them worked.

Helium was called carbon before. It was changed due to copyright issues

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3 via Tapatalk Pro
 

srkmagnus

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I've got a Nexus 7 so there's no option for external memory.

There should be an option for some type of memory - maybe internal or SD card?

I don't use Helium, so bare with me if you don't have those options. :)

Sent from my Nexus 5 using AC Forums mobile app
 

ruhban

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Yup there's an option for internal memory. I just thought that the fact I don't have an SD card slot may make a difference. I suppose I wasn't thinking X_X
 

ruhban

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Never use Helium. Asking for the dev's help is like taking blood from a stone and even when they finally decide to help you, they give you very little to work from. Here's the reason why I can't restore my Nexus, according to the dev:

Directly from our wiki: Helium ceases to recognize backups

There are a few reasons for this, listed below;

You manually moved the Carbon backup folder that is located at the root of your device storage. The app stops recognizing backups that are manually moved, as it's an unsupported scenario. There is no workaround or fix for your issue as it is unsupported. In the future, make backups to your PC using the PC Download feature. To backup to your PC, use the PC Download feature found in the settings menu of the app on your device. This will launch a server that you can connect to via a browser on your PC provided that your PC and device are on the same network that you own or control. Upon launching the server, it will give you an IP address that you put into the address bar of the browser on your PC.

You copied and pasted the folder, your backups will cease to be recognized.

Posted via my Z10 using Android Central App
 

ruhban

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I could be wrong but I think it's just one guy. He got back to me within a few hours on his Google+ Community.

Also I know you can copy folders between devices because I did it from my Galaxy Note 10.1 to my Galaxy S4.

But how? The dev's said he can't do it himself so I'd really appreciate some help :(

Posted via my Z10 using Android Central App
 

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