Trying to understand Nandroid backup/recovery.

[N2myN2]

Is this what you do (after unlocking the bootloader & TWRP) to have a baseline place to go back to?
For instance, say you have Beans4 and maybe a custom kernal. But you want to try something completely new. You flash back to Nandroid recovery and all is well with the world again?
Or maybe you're having trouble with your custom ROM setup and need to get back to somewhere stable.
Is that what a Nandroid backup/recovery is for?
And that brings up another question... Say I have Beans4 installed and I want to change to CleanROM. Do I need to go back to Nandroid backup first before I flash the new ROM?
I'm working hard to understand this stuff, honest.
Thanks again,
Rob

 

[SonOfUncleSam]

You're essentially on the right track here... Think of a Nandroid backup as a complete backup of your phone in its current state. One of the best things you can do, is backup before installing any kind of modifications and/or new ROMs. Also, creating backups in regular intervals is never a bad idea either (assuming your SD card has the space available).

A Nandroid backup will backup everything within your phone's OS, which includes apps, messages, phone call logs, emails, etc. If you have issues with a new ROM that you install after making a Nandroid backup, you can revert back to the old ROM by restoring the Nandroid backup. It's similar to System Recovery in Windows, though it is more through, in the sense that it backups EVERYTHING! This is why your backups can be multiple Gbs worth of data. (And if you're a Mac person, its very much like the Time Machine option)

If you were to have issues with a new ROM, you shouldn't (in theory) have to do anything in preparation to restore a Nandroid backup.

Hope this solves your questions!

 

[nrm5110]

Nandroid is a play on words referring to the NAND flash memory that's used on these phones.

Its literally a backup of the os in the state you backup from. So let's say you have a ROM kernel and all your apps exactly how you like. You make a nandroid as a means to give you a safe place to go back to in case something bad happens down the line. Often it backs up /system and /data in some cases it will back up caches as well likely depending on your input.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

 

[DroidXcon]

Is this what you do (after unlocking the bootloader & TWRP) to have a baseline place to go back to?
For instance, say you have Beans4 and maybe a custom kernal. But you want to try something completely new. You flash back to Nandroid recovery and all is well with the world again?
Or maybe you're having trouble with your custom ROM setup and need to get back to somewhere stable.
Is that what a Nandroid backup/recovery is for?
And that brings up another question... Say I have Beans4 installed and I want to change to CleanROM. Do I need to go back to Nandroid backup first before I flash the new ROM?
I'm working hard to understand this stuff, honest.
Thanks again,
Rob

I answered this here>>http://forums.androidcentral.com/ve...-how-use-custom-recoveries-let-fun-begin.html

Maybe my explaination was not clear enough...No you dont need to if you dont mind setting everything up again if you come back to beans rom from cleanrom......... If you do a Nandroid backup right now while using beans it will basically copy everything your settings , your contacts. EVERYTHING...... then say you flash cleanrom and you hate it or it is bootlooping your system and decide you want to go back to beans. You could simply use the Nandroid backup you made and you wont even need to set anything up everything will be there the way you left it.
But it does not backup the kernel you would need to flash a kernel seperatly. Hope that helps

Please read the FAQ in the recoveries thread and let me know if it is not clear enough , ill revise it.

 

[SonOfUncleSam]

Now to answer each question individually...

Is this what you do (after unlocking the bootloader & TWRP) to have a baseline place to go back to?

Yes! This will allow you to come back to the stock ROM should you have any issues with new ROMs or mods. (There are many options out there, I suggest you check our XDA Developers for more options!)

For instance, say you have Beans4 and maybe a custom kernal. But you want to try something completely new. You flash back to Nandroid recovery and all is well with the world again?
Or maybe you're having trouble with your custom ROM setup and need to get back to somewhere stable. Is that what a Nandroid backup/recovery is for?

Well, there's no need to flash a Nandroid backup in order to install a new ROM. What you want to do is boot into recovery mode, from there, you can create Nandroid backups, restore Nandroid backups, wipe cache partitions, and install new ROMs via zip or image files.

If something were to go wrong with the new ROM, you can restore your Nandroid backup to restore your phone to its previous state. I find this especially helpful, because I'm very picky and indecisive when it comes to ROMs.

And that brings up another question... Say I have Beans4 installed and I want to change to CleanROM. Do I need to go back to Nandroid backup first before I flash the new ROM?

No, not at all. All you have to do in preparation to installing a new ROM is rebooting into recovery mode (I don't know about TWRP, I use ClockworkMod myself. It has an option within the app itself), wipe the cache partitions (Factory reset, wipe cache, wipe Dalvik cache), then install the new ROM via zip or image file. There is no need to revert back to the original Nandroid backup.

 

[N2myN2]

I answered this here>>http://forums.androidcentral.com/ve...-how-use-custom-recoveries-let-fun-begin.html

Maybe my explaination was not clear enough..

Please read the FAQ in the recoveries thread and let me know if it is not clear enough , ill revise it.

It's clear enough. This is just new territory for me. I've read everything you've posted several times. The light over my head is a bit dim, but on.
Also, can I make multiple Nandroid backups? Assuming I have enough room on the SD card (64GB Class 10).
Thank you everyone. I really appreciate it,
Rob

 

[DroidXcon]

It's clear enough. This is just new territory for me. I've read everything you've posted several times. The light over my head is a bit dim, but on.
Also, can I make multiple Nandroid backups? Assuming I have enough room on the SD card (64GB Class 10).
Thank you everyone. I really appreciate it,
Rob

as many as you want , like you said, if you have enough room

 

[Cameron Goad]

Is there a way to get around having to set everything up again (app settings, launcher settings) for each ROM?

 

[DroidXcon]

Is there a way to get around having to set everything up again (app settings, launcher settings) for each ROM?

Use titanium backup

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

 

[Cameron Goad]

I've got it and I backed up everything while on my stock ROM. Now I want to use CM10.1. How do I switch everything over to the new rom

 

[DroidXcon]

I've got it and I backed up everything while on my stock ROM. Now I want to use CM10.1. How do I switch everything over to the new rom

The same way you did the backup but this time select under the restore section. "Restore Missing apps with data"

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

 

[nantlr]

Hello DroidXcon,

I have been looking for a way to be able to go back to my oiriginal rom, once I have finished testing a new one. I thought the answer was Nandroid backup until you explained that it does not restore the kerne
l, which would be the main thing.

Is there any way I can take a real "snapshot" of my current ROM just
in case I want to go back?

I appreciate your help.

 

[Trees]

I'll try to help answer. A Nandroid backup is a great option as DroidXcon explained. When you want to restore your original ROM most custom recoveries allow for flashing more than one zip or image file while in recovery mode. Just keep a copy of your original kernel handy. Flash back your original ROM, then the kernel, then reboot.

One thing I've learned that's important to understand. TWRP custom recovery does not backup your media directory and content. I don't have much experience with Clockwork Mod, so can't say it's the same for media. In either case make sure you backup all important stuff before flashing.

Hope this helps.

 

[anjos]

Hi there, I'm wondering if I can clear some doubts that I have about Nandroid backup. I root my phone and I shouldn't have done that. I'm noob in this and it's not helping me. I tried to go back to factory settings with a RUU, but I got a message saying that the RUU version is old. Some one post an Nandroid backup with the same model/carrier than mine (HTC one 802W dual sim china unicom). If I use his nandroid would I be able to use the RUU? (the guy that posted the RUU also posted the Nandroid backup)

 

[Abrar Mazhar]

i am using Xperia S...if i want to revert back to my original rom which i made a nandroid backup of do do i neeed to wipe cache dalvik cache n dat or just hit the restore option in CWM???

 

[RobFreundlich]

To my dismay (and some loss of data), I've found that a Nandroid backup does not, in fact, back up everything, nor does Titanium. Neither of them seems to grab data that is stored in files on the internal SD Card.

This weekend, I installed an update for the ROM I'm using, and before doing it, I did a TWRP Nandroid backup and used Titanium to back up all of my system/user apps and their data. After the install, I went through Titanium and restored everything. MOST of my apps were fine.

However, two (that I've found so far) are not. S Note and B-Folders both came back with no data, even though I'd told Titanium to back them up and restore them. It turns out that they both have data in the file system on /sdcard. Titanium seemed to only back up the SQLite databases for the various apps, and the Nandroid backup didn't grab the entire SD Card - it just grabbed /system and /data.

For B-Folders, I've been syncing to my desktop, so I was able to recover easily.

For S Note, I should have been syncing to Samsung or Evernote and wasn't. So shame on me. And I didn't yet have a ton of stuff in it, so it's a fairly benign lesson learned.

 

[Sam Collee]

Hey Guys, maybe this is a stupid question, but just to be sure.
A few weeks ago i flashed CM11 on my s3 i9305, but i didn?t like it that much so i flashed my stock rom back, before i did that i backupped everything using nandroid backup in TWRP. Stock rom flashed great but when i tried to restore everything using twrp restore i got my CM11 rom back. So my question is, if i restore everything except system, will i get all my apps and date back without getting CM11 back?
Sorry for my bad english btw.

 

[corduroysack]

I have a question, i flashed philz and made a nandroid backup but then changed to twrp further down the line now ive gone back to philz would the nandroid backup i made with this still be viable to restore to my phone?
thanks