Using root for a deletion spree...

Cwey55

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I'll start by saying I'm quite a newbie to rooting and otherwise tinkering with my phone, but I learn quick so bear with me.

I have a Verizon S4 on 4.3 MK2.

I took the plunge a while back and learned to get rooted out of frustration with all the bloatware eating up storage, RAM, and battery life. From there I used System App Uninstaller and Titanium Backup to go on an all out deleting spree deleting any bloatware I never cared to use or felt safe to delete. My phone ran better and had better battery life than ever. I never got into flashing different ROMs or anything just deleted bloatware, in turn dubbing the phone "custom" per the boot screen.

Word of this new 4.4 KitKat update coming came and like so many I had the itch to update to the hot new OS. Even knowing the update would kill my root I wanted the update. So when I got the word the upgrade rolled out I checked and there it was ready to download. I went thru the "unroot" in my SuperSU app settings and confirmed I no longer was rooted and the OTA update failed. After much research here and on xda I learned even having "unrooted" my Rom was still labeled as custom after deleting all the bloatware (and not backing it up, which is where this is going, again bear with me).

So I went through the process of learning to reflash the stock 4.3 MK2 Rom via ODIN with success. Now here I am back at square one. I can now take the 4.4 update OTA right?

I haven't tried, because honestly now that I know how well my phone ran on 4.3 rooted/debloated, and there is no root discovered for 4.4 yet, and there's no easy going back once you update, and there's been such widespread love/hate for 4.4, I'm not even really that sure I want it now. I think I'm more content to sit tight on an OS I know I can root and make my phone run awesome rather than jump on the unproven newest thing.

So this brings me to my real question. I read everywhere in my research how it's sooooo important to have recoveries/backups made once you root. Why?

It took me some careful research and taking things slow but I really found just reflashing the stock Rom via ODIN to be an easy and slick process for recovering myself back to stock. Why make backups if you can do that?

I've already re-rooted (with Saferoot) since my ODIN reflash. I just want to get some education on before I go debloating again. For the time being I have used the system functions in the app manager to disable all the bloatware and App Freezer to get the few that couldn't be disabled in the app manager.

So school me. What's the big difference between making a backup on your own with say Titanium Backup, and just using ODIN to flash back to stock if need be? Be gentle, like I said I'm kind of a newbie to this just looking to learn...

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Paul627g

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Simple answer would be, even though you have had successful flashes with Odin the risk is still there for something to go badly wrong. Anytime you " flash " the device with Odin your re writing and partitioning the device and if something does go wrong you could end up hard bricked.

Backups of on the other hand that are made from within your custom recovery or with Titanium Backup, etc. are a much safer route for restoring deleted/removed data and apps.

Chances are you probably will be fine using Odin but the risk is always there each time you fire it up and push the start button to flash.
 

Cwey55

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Fair enough. So when using Titanium Backup I am assuming it is best practice to use the function for a full system backup rather than the option for backing up user apps, from what I can gather that just backs up the apps the user has added, which are generally saved in your play store account anyways.

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xceeder

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Fair enough. So when using Titanium Backup I am assuming it is best practice to use the function for a full system backup rather than the option for backing up user apps, from what I can gather that just backs up the apps the user has added, which are generally saved in your play store account anyways.

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When you flash a new rom and everything is running fine, go into your recovery and do a nandroid backup before deleting any bloatware, a nandroid backup will make a full backup of all the contents on your device so if anything goes wrong you can click on restore from within the recovery menu and a nandroid backs up your boot files, kernel, and rom data not just the playstore apps...

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Cwey55

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I don't really plan to do any flashing of custom roms. I really only use root for debloat right now. So is a full system and user app backup via Titanium all I need for that? Is that a Nandroid backup or something different?

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Paul627g

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Yes you can use titanium or before you start removing things make a full backup in your custom recovery. I'm assuming you had to install one like Clockworkmod or TWRP as part of the rooting process?

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Cwey55

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I did not install a custom recovery to root. I used saferoot to root. I have since installed Titanium Backup and Safestrap...

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Cwey55

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Here is another question. For the time being, rather than delete a bunch of stuff, I have gone ahead and used Titanium Backup to freeze a metric boat load of things I don't need...

Does it make a difference when I make a backup (either with Safestrap or Titanium) if those frozen apps are frozen or not? If I leave them frozen and make my backup as such will they still be included in the backup or do I need to unfreeze all of them to get a true stock image for my backup?

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BadgerVadge907

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When my S4 ROM flash failed, the backup file from CWM recovery still had all of my apps, even frozen apps, which are just disabled, it still stored all info settings and everything except text messages IIRC. Turns out I had a typo in the script for the build.prop so I fixed it and now everything is as cool as yoga pants.
You also can download the stock firmware for your phone, and store it on your PC for a full factory reset backup...which is about a gigabyte size, compared to the 200mb cm11 build lol. this is only if its bricked or you want to revert back to OEM. You just get the phone back to download mode and file dump the oem firmware through odin 3.7 and you are back to factory, UN-ROOTED, and the binary download is RESET BACK TO ZERO!
dont need to worry when you have forums full of android enthusiasts.
 

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