My phone is royally screwed up! Can I get some help fixing it?

[AC Question]

My phone is royally screwed up!

S3-rooted-titanium backup. I THINK what I did was clear cache for user & system apps in TB. Next thing I know, all my apps and system data was from about a year ago. It also said my phone had a new ID. I think I got all my newer apps back by running "restore missing apps + all system data". So now I have a mix of new apps and old settings. The most obvious changes that I can see are the folder configurations and message data are from that last backup on 8/23/14. My biggest fear is that I'm screwed because I obviously didn't have my backup settings set up right. Is there a way to reverse what I did? Phone is REALLY slow, app notification settings keep resetting themselves, and now when I open the camera it freezes and I have to restart. I use DU speed booster app and I have NQ Security to hopefully prevent viruses. Well, I guess this is somewhere to start. Thank you.
-Aaron

 

[LeoRex]

Re: My phone is royally screwed up!

Sounds like you loaded since old system data... Which can lead to all manners of problems.

Do you have a custom recovery? What I would do in this situation all depends on the answer to that question.

 

[abrock3]

Re: My phone is royally screwed up!

I registered, so this is same person as original question. Thank you for responding. I honestly didn't know what a custom recovery was so I looked it up. No, I don't have one although it sounds like it would have helped if I did.

 

[LeoRex]

Re: My phone is royally screwed up!

I had to ask. I know that you are rooted and loaded TB... typically a custom recovery like TWRP goes hand in hand with root (but you need to unlock the bootloader for a custom recovery).

The problem is that when you restored the stuff in TB, you brought in some system data as well... that can be a little bit tricky to deal with as some would get wiped if you did a factory reset, other data would be persistent. If you had a custom recovery, I would have just recommended that you reload your ROM and then go from there... but without that option, there are a few things you can do.

You can reboot into the stock recovery and clear the cache first.. All you have to do is shut down your device and boot while holding the volume up, home button and power button simultaneously. There will be a "wipe cache and dalvik cache" option. Select that and reboot (this is not destructive and should leave your stuff in tact). If that doesn't work... then you are looking at a factory reset. If THAT doesn't work, then your best bet is to reload the factory image, which will completely clean everything (including getting rid of root).

 

[abrock3]

Re: My phone is royally screwed up!

Thank you so much for your replies! I really didn't think I was going to get any help. I love the Androids because you can do so much more with them but that's also what makes them frustrating sometimes. They're great IF you know what you're doing which I obviously don't. More you can do equals more that can go wrong. I recently had to switch my phone through warranty because of a bad charging port. I asked the store and some different people "how do I transfer everything over to my new phone so it looks and works like my phone now and so I don't lose any data". Everyone told me there was no way to do that. I thought "why would anyone want to upgrade their phone if they're going to have to spend hours all over again to get everything all set up and lose data from all their apps?". I went to the internet and spent countless hours over the course of three months looking for answers. I'm hoping to upgrade my phone within the year but I'm kinda nervous about it. When the time comes I will definitely look here for advice of how to transfer what you want and leave what you don't. My phone is a complete mess and I'll just chalk this one up as learning what not to do. Thanks again for your help.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[LeoRex]

Re: My phone is royally screwed up!

Well... Google needs to work on the restore functions. Lollipop improved things a bit, now they'll reload your apps, your homescreen layout, wifi hot spots... etc. But they still don't backup the actual app data that the apps store... that's what most people want since all the config stuff, saves, etc... its all in the app data.

But yeah, I have all my good stuff dropped into Titanium Backup. If I reload my phone from scratch, I can have it back to exactly where it was before fairly quickly (TB can take a while to restore all the apps, but that doesn't require any effort on my part). But I've been fussing with those things for a looong time and know where the landmines are buried.

 

[Rukbat]

Re: My phone is royally screwed up!

How to transfer everything to your new phone? Backing up an Android Device. Back up on the old one, restore on the new one.

As far as your TB problem - if you don't have a current backup, you can't restore current data. If you do, restore the latest backup (hopefully a recent one).

In the future, if you're rooted, you might as well install TWRP as your recovery (or SafeStrap if you have a locked bootloader - it's a special version of TWRP that works on certain Samsung phones that are so welded shut that it's amazing they still work). Then you can do a data backup any time you change anything significant (adding a new app, redoing your entire homepage setup, anything like that) and, if you don't like what you did, just restore the backup. (If the phone allows you to install older versions of Android, you can back up the current system before updating, so if you don't like the new version, you can restore the old one. Or if you're going to do something that might totally mess your phone up [I did that over a dozen times one week, trying different ROMs], you can restore the phone to the way it was in about 10-15 minutes, with just a few taps [and a lot of watching grass grow].)

 

[abrock3]

Re: My phone is royally screwed up!

Thanks to both of you. This is a never ending learning process and you both helped.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Golfdriver97]

Re: My phone is royally screwed up!

This is a never ending learning process

Welcome to Android Central (sorry, this is the first time I have seen this thread). We were all new to Android at one point in time.

As far as backing up data for phones...Because I sync everything with Google servers, the only thing I can possibly lose is game data saves. In which case, there are more and more developers that are backing up data on either their servers or Google's, or I just let it go....it's just a game, and more often than not, I have lost interest in it by the time I upgrade.

Edit: Some more links that might help out int he future:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...-guide-you-ve-rooted-your-phone-now-what.html

http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...00292-guide-how-use-your-custom-recovery.html

http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...h-your-custom-recovery-other-basics-twrp.html

http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...recoveries-versus-stock-there-difference.html