[HOW-TO] TiBu The Easy Way!

[2defmouze]

Feedback!

First of all, thanks again for a great guide to TiBu. I'm brand new to this rooting thing, and your guide took a overwhelming (for me) process of backing up my apps and made it really easy to understand.

So I flashed a ROM on my (Sprint) Galaxy Nexus yesterday. It was the first time I flashed since reading this guide and using TiBu (2nd time flashing overall). The first time I flashed a ROM, I got some buggy behavior. It was because I wiped everything except internal storage. The folks over at XDA told me that because the Galaxy Nexus doesn't have a seperate partition for it's virtual SD card (instead it's just one big partition for "internal storage" and "sd card") I had to fully wipe my internal storage to get a clean flash. Sure enough, when I wiped my internal storage too (in addition to data, cache, and dalvik) and reflashed, then the bugginess went away.

I point this out because this adds the extra steps to your guide of saving your "update.zip" file and the entire "/sdcard/TitaniumBackup" folder to your computer, and then pushing them back to your phones internal storage after you wipe. I assume this wouldn't be necessary on other phones that have an external SD card or a seperate partition for a virtual sd card because those don't have to be wiped when you flash. It's important to make sure everyone understands the difference.

Personally I used Wifi File Explorer Pro to save the files to my computer (no cables needed) and then I used the cmd commands "adb push update.zip /sdcard/" and "adb push TitaniumBackup /sdcard/TitaniumBackup" (no quotes ... not sure if I needed a slash at the end of the latter command) to easily push those files back onto my phone after wiping through recovery.

I hope this helps someone.

The guys at that other forum have mostly no idea what they are talking about

Yes, your internal sd card can become corrupted over time and you might occasionally find that doing a complete wipe, internal storage included, might be good for your phone.. but this should be in extremely rare situations. I've done it twice since December, and have flashed around a hundred or more ROMs, lol. All of us regular crackflashers will tell you that when you do a full wipe to flash a new ROM you should pretty much never have to worry about wiping your internal sd, and trust me, we do this A LOT.

In your case, it is possible the bugginess you experienced required a complete wipe of the phone, but don't assume you should always have to do this. It should only be done in the most extreme cases... 99% of the time a normal Wipe data/factory reset followed by a system wipe before you flash a new ROM will be plenty to ensure a bug free experience. Hope that helps clear things up

 

[Nechasin]

The guys at that other forum have mostly no idea what they are talking about

Yes, your internal sd card can become corrupted over time and you might occasionally find that doing a complete wipe, internal storage included, might be good for your phone.. but this should be in extremely rare situations. I've done it twice since December, and have flashed around a hundred or more ROMs, lol. All of us regular crackflashers will tell you that when you do a full wipe to flash a new ROM you should pretty much never have to worry about wiping your internal sd, and trust me, we do this A LOT.

In your case, it is possible the bugginess you experienced required a complete wipe of the phone, but don't assume you should always have to do this. It should only be done in the most extreme cases... 99% of the time a normal Wipe data/factory reset followed by a system wipe before you flash a new ROM will be plenty to ensure a bug free experience. Hope that helps clear things up

I agree, I have never done a full complete wipe of my internal SD card. But having said that I do recommend that you keep backups off your phone in case soemthing catastrophic happens to your phone and you want to be able to recover your data. I actually have mine setup to back up once a week (if I stay on a ROM that long) and upload the backup to Dropbox.

 

[jean15paul]

The guys at that other forum have mostly no idea what they are talking about

LOL!

Yes, your internal sd card can become corrupted over time and you might occasionally find that doing a complete wipe, internal storage included, might be good for your phone.. but this should be in extremely rare situations. I've done it twice since December, and have flashed around a hundred or more ROMs, lol. All of us regular crackflashers will tell you that when you do a full wipe to flash a new ROM you should pretty much never have to worry about wiping your internal sd, and trust me, we do this A LOT.

In your case, it is possible the bugginess you experienced required a complete wipe of the phone, but don't assume you should always have to do this. It should only be done in the most extreme cases... 99% of the time a normal Wipe data/factory reset followed by a system wipe before you flash a new ROM will be plenty to ensure a bug free experience. Hope that helps clear things up

Thanks for the info. I'm still pretty new at this, so I appreciate the feedback. If you don't mind me bugging you with more questions. This is my first ever custom ROM. I'm using TWRP because the devs recommended TWRP over CWM for this specific ROM. I've heard that you need to wipe "data, cache, and dalvik". On my first attempt I did these 3 wipes from the TWRP wipe menu: "Factory Reset", "Cache", and "Dalvik Cache". Are those the correct things to wipe? After flashing the volume controls and headphones weren't working (a problem that no one else had). Maybe it was just a bad flash or something, I don't know. Someone recommended that I also wipe internal storage, so the 2nd time I did "Factory Reset", "Cache", "Dalvik Cache", and "Internal Storage". After flashing the 2nd time everything worked perfectly. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Anyway, after your response I just want a 2nd opinion. What exactly do I need to wipe when trying to get a clean flash?

Thanks in advance.

 

[2defmouze]

LOL!



Thanks for the info. I'm still pretty new at this, so I appreciate the feedback. If you don't mind me bugging you with more questions. This is my first ever custom ROM. I'm using TWRP because the devs recommended TWRP over CWM for this specific ROM. I've heard that you need to wipe "data, cache, and dalvik". On my first attempt I did these 3 wipes from the TWRP wipe menu: "Factory Reset", "Cache", and "Dalvik Cache". Are those the correct things to wipe? After flashing the volume controls and headphones weren't working (a problem that no one else had). Maybe it was just a bad flash or something, I don't know. Someone recommended that I also wipe internal storage, so the 2nd time I did "Factory Reset", "Cache", "Dalvik Cache", and "Internal Storage". After flashing the 2nd time everything worked perfectly. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Anyway, after your response I just want a 2nd opinion. What exactly do I need to wipe when trying to get a clean flash?

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like you did everything right the first time.. Chalk it up to a bad flash or a rare case of corrupted data. Normally those instructions should do you just fine

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[VAVA Mk2]

Excellent post, 2defmouze! Some new tips I can use from that.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[Keekers11]

So when I verfiy my backups, it tells me there was one error found then gives me a choice to delete the backup. I have no idea what the error is.

 

[2defmouze]

So when I verfiy my backups, it tells me there was one error found then gives me a choice to delete the backup. I have no idea what the error is.

Sounds like the wise idea would be to accept the delete option and just remake the backups.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Keekers11]

Sounds like the wise idea would be to accept the delete option and just remake the backups.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Already tried that

 

[2defmouze]

Already tried that

Try this.. Uninstall TiBu, then using Root explorer or whatever, go into your /sdcard/TitaniumBackup folder and just delete everything in it (you can do it from your computer as well if it's easier to select everything that way).

Reboot, reinstall TiBu and start from scratch creating backups again.

Let me know how that turns out.. Sorry I'm shooting guesses here, have never had that error in like 10 months using TiBu, lol..

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Keekers11]

Try this.. Uninstall TiBu, then using Root explorer or whatever, go into your /sdcard/TitaniumBackup folder and just delete everything in it (you can do it from your computer as well if it's easier to select everything that way).

Reboot, reinstall TiBu and start from scratch creating backups again.

Let me know how that turns out.. Sorry I'm shooting guesses here, have never had that error in like 10 months using TiBu, lol..

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

And people think it's flattering to tell me I'm the first!
I'm counting on you here

 

[Keekers11]

Grrrrrr! My phone is telling me there is insufficient storage space! My phone is telling me otherwise! 22.57GB available.

 

[Keekers11]

This is fixed Had to delete a file in the system and was able to download Titanium.

 

[2defmouze]

This is fixed Had to delete a file in the system and was able to download Titanium.

Hm.. alright... so you got everything working then?

 

[Keekers11]

Yes sir!

 

[Keekers11]

I had to go to the Home folder--->Data--->and delete file name "com.keramidas.Titaniumbackup"

 

[jean15paul]

Ok, TiBu worked great the last time I flashed. Periodically I've been backing up new apps and data to keep everything backed up just in case.

Yesterday when I went to create a backup I got an error that said, "Backup failed: Insufficient free storage space." I have almost 25 GB free, so I know that can't be right. I've tried both batch backups and backups of individual apps with the same result. I can restore, I just can't back up.

Is this the same problem that you were having Keekers11?

Does anyone have any insight?

I did Google the error, but I only found people who couldn't install an app from the Play Store due to an insufficient storage error. Nothing on not being able to make a TiBu backup.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[2defmouze]

Ok, TiBu worked great the last time I flashed. Periodically I've been backing up new apps and data to keep everything backed up just in case.

Yesterday when I went to create a backup I got an error that said, "Backup failed: Insufficient free storage space." I have almost 25 GB free, so I know that can't be right. I've tried both batch backups and backups of individual apps with the same result. I can restore, I just can't back up.

Is this the same problem that you were having Keekers11?

Does anyone have any insight?

I did Google the error, but I only found people who couldn't install an app from the Play Store due to an insufficient storage error. Nothing on not being able to make a TiBu backup.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

Sounds like the same.. I believe the file he referred to is actually in /sdcard/data... TiBu should just recreate it if you delete it but you may have to re-check TiBu's settings after if you've altered anything.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[jean15paul]

Sounds like the same.. I believe the file he referred to is actually in /sdcard/data... TiBu should just recreate it if you delete it but you may have to re-check TiBu's settings after if you've altered anything.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

I deleted this file "/storage/sdcard0/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup" and it didn't work. I'm still getting the same error.

I also see "Storage card/media/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup". I didn't delete that one (I just found it), but it appears to be the same file.

I also see "/data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup/" but that one is a folder not a file. It has another level of folders buried in it: "files, databases, shared_prefs, lib, and cache" with lots of files in those. That looks like something different and since it's a folder I didn't delete it. Is that what I should delete?

Sorry if I'm being dense, but Android's folder structure confuses me. It often seem like there more than one path to the same files.

Another question, would it make sense to uninstall and reinstall TiBu? Would uninstalling TiBu delete my backups? Can I even uninstall it since I flashed update.zip as a system app? If I do uninstall and reinstall should I install from the market or reflash update.zip?

Thanks again

 

[2defmouze]

I deleted this file "/storage/sdcard0/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup" and it didn't work. I'm still getting the same error.

I also see "Storage card/media/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup". I didn't delete that one (I just found it), but it appears to be the same file.

I also see "/data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup/" but that one is a folder not a file. It has another level of folders buried in it: "files, databases, shared_prefs, lib, and cache" with lots of files in those. That looks like something different and since it's a folder I didn't delete it. Is that what I should delete?

Sorry if I'm being dense, but Android's folder structure confuses me. It often seem like there more than one path to the same files.

Another question, would it make sense to uninstall and reinstall TiBu? Would uninstalling TiBu delete my backups? Can I even uninstall it since I flashed update.zip as a system app? If I do uninstall and reinstall should I install from the market or reflash update.zip?

Thanks again

Hopefully keekers can confirm which he deleted then, as he said it did fix the problem.

You could try clearing TiBus cache and data under Settings, Apps, All, TiBu.. It should not affect your backups as they are on the sdcard. To be safe you can copy the /sdcard/TitaniumBackup folder to your computer first, this is where all the backups are stored.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[Keekers11]

Hopefully keekers can confirm which he deleted then, as he said it did fix the problem.

You could try clearing TiBus cache and data under Settings, Apps, All, TiBu.. It should not affect your backups as they are on the sdcard. To be safe you can copy the /sdcard/TitaniumBackup folder to your computer first, this is where all the backups are stored.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

Yup! That's the exact same error message I was getting. I went a couple steps farther and also deleted all files in the TiBu folder, uninstalled TiBu, then reinstalled it.