[Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installing new ROMs

[paintdrinkingpete]

My inspiration for this post comes straight from PvilleComp's tutorial: What to back up and restore when switching ROM's over on the Incredible section of these boards. I've copied his post directly on the second post of this thread.

First, there are 3 apps that I recommend every rooted android user have if they are planning on flashing ROMs:
ROM Manager
Titanium Backup
MyBackup

I do recommend getting the PRO versions of these apps, especially if you plan on using them frequently, but the free version should work fine if you just want to to try them out.

Basically the goal here is to back as much stuff up as possible to make restoring your phone after a ROM install as painless as possible while still preserving the perfect state you've worked so hard to get your Android phone to on your current OS configuration.

This is the method that I use, it may not be the only one, but it's worked well for me. The most part, I had to learn by trial and error, as it was hard to find a definitive guide on how to do this, which is I thought I'd put this together.

Suggestion/Warning: Check "Settings --> Privacy" to see if you have Google enabled to back up your settings. If not, your apps will not automatically restore from the market, as described in part 2 of this guide. If you don't want to enable this setting, you will have to manually re-install your apps from the market or from backup -- be sure to backup what you need!



Part 1: Preparing your existing configuration

NOTE: Before doing any of this I recommend going into the Market and checking your apps for any available updates -- this will ensure that all of your backup data matches the version for the app you're trying to restore.

1. MyBackup

- Select "Backup" --> "Data" --> "Local (/mnt/sdcard)"
- Chose what you want to have backed up. I usually check everything except for "System Settings", "Contacts", and "Calendar" (reasons described in the PvilleComp's guide)
NOTE: "Android Home" refers to your home screen setup. I've only ever used it with Sense-based ROMs, but it seems to work pretty well. Use with caution when going from one Android and/or Sense version to another. If you do restore your homescreen icons, often times certain widgets will appear with an error; simply removing and re-adding them on the homescreen will usually fix it.
- Because it bears repeating: DO NOT BACKUP SYSTEM SETTINGS -- Unless you really know what you're doing, this will most likely only cause more harm than good.
- Create backup

2. Titanium

- Click on "Backup/Restore" at the top of the page

- Go through the list of apps and preform a backup of each app that you will want to restore data. Avoid all "system" apps; the ones to focus on should primarily be apps downloaded from the market or pre-loaded apps that have data worth recovering (again, see PvilleComp's list below for guidance). Apps with logon information or saved progress are the prime candidates. Also, any non-market apps that you want to be able to easily restore. Alternatively, you could do a batch job to backup all user apps, just to make sure you have everything.

3. ROM Manager

- ROM Manager is best used for one single purpose: Flashing Clockwork Recovery. This is the recovery partition that you can boot to in order to install ROMs and preform various other tasks. There are features in ROM Manager that allow you to complete certain tasks directly from the app, such as backing up and restoring ROMs, and installing new ROMs as well. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT INSTALLING APPS OR ANY OTHER TASKS FROM THE ROM MANAGER APP UI. INSTEAD, BOOT INTO THE RECOVERY PARTITION AND PERFORM ALL TASKS FROM THERE. A lot of folks that try to use ROM Manager to install ROMs often report more problems/bugs than those who don't.

For more info on using ROM Manager and Clockwork Recovery to install ROMs and preform Nandroid backup/restore jobs, please see Cyber Warriors guide here:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/thu...-backup-restore-install-roms-thunderbolt.html


Part 2: Restoring data

After the new ROM has been installed, the phone will reboot. You will have to go through the setup wizard and enter your account info, etc. Once that is done, the default home screen will load and an initial sync will begin. This first sync *should* include the app market re-downloading and installing all of your apps. You can check the progress of this by opening the Market, pressing the MENU button and clicking on "My Apps". Let this process finish completely before starting the restore jobs.

1. Titanium

- Once again, click on "Backup/Restore" at the top of the page

- Go through the apps you backed up, and select "restore". For most apps, they will have already been re-installed on the initial sync, so you only have to restore the DATA. For non-Market apps and widgets, you may also have to restore the app as well as the data.

2. MyBackup

- Select "Restore: --> "Data" --> "Local". You'll see a list of available backups, most likely you'll want to choose the most recent one.

- Select all items to restore (be sure not to include "System Settings" if it is listed).

- This process may take a while, especially contacts (if you chose to back them up) and HTC Home (the home screen configurations)...just sit back and wait

- Once finished, reboot the phone


That should do it! Once restarted, your phone should be pretty much set and be back to a very similar configuration as you had before.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Here's is PvilleComp's original post:

I started this is another thread, but since the question seems to keep coming up I thought I’d flesh it out and put it in its own thread so it can be found easier.

How should you backup and restore your apps and data when moving to a new ROM?​

There are several ways to back up your phone. Clockwork and other Recoveries offer you the ability to make a Nandroid of your phone. This is a critical backup procedure and should be used early and often when flashing ROM’s. Other backup methods involve apps form the Android Market like Titanium Backup, My Backup Root and others.

Nandroid backups are full system images of your device at the time the backup was made. Nandroids are an all or nothing recovery tool. They are not good for restoring apps to a new ROM.

To backup data between ROMS there are several good backup programs you can use, and there is no harm in backing up everything on your phone with Titanium or any other backup tool. It’s the restore where people get into trouble.

Never Never Never restore system data from Titanium or any other backup program when moving to a new ROM. The system data from your old ROM will interfere with the new ROM every time.

So after backing everything up what should be restored?

Pictures/Video – Pictures and video on many devices are stored by default to the phone’s internal emcc data partition. Before flashing any ROM’s you want to move these to your SD–Card for safe keeping. There is no need to restore them because the Gallery apps will find them on the SD-Card just fine.

email - Gmail is saved on the Google Servers so no need to back that up. POP/IMAP and Exchange email is also backed up on the mail server so again no need to back that up or restore it.

Contacts - Gmail contacts are automatically backed up to Google's servers. Exchange contacts are also backed up on the server. Phone contacts can be backed up using the export/import function in the phone app. You restore phone contacts using the same export/import function in the phone app.

Calendar - if you use the Gmail Calendar, Google’s Server automatically backs up your data. If you use Outlook to sync your Calendar with HTC Sync, then flashing to another ROM may or may not support HTC Sync so you should use the Gmail Outlook Calendar sync utility to sync your Outlook Calendar to Gmail. If you use Exchange then the Calendar will be automatically backed up on the Exchange server.

Bookmarks – Many of the backup utilities will back up bookmarks and this is one of the very few pieces of system data that can be restored on any phone.

Apps - What apps really need to be backed up/restored? Apps that hold state or current progress information and that's it. Apps like Angry Birds (as an example) store your progress locally and if you do not back it up you will lose your progress, so game data can be backed up and restored.

Bank apps? Nope - everything is on the bank's server. Just re-download and login.

Weather Channel? Nope - the handful of locations you can monitor can easily be re-inputted after a fresh install.

Beautiful Widgets? Nope - If you have the paid version, you can re-download from the market and re-set up your preferences. If you want to save the data so you don't have to re-download skins then this is another where you can restore the data after re-installing the app.

The big advantage to backing up all your apps with Titanium is that you have a list of what you had installed. You are better off doing clean installs from the market for apps that do not hold state. Another way to manage which apps you had installed is to use AppBrain, it will sync what apps you have installed but AppBrain does not save data.

SMS - Now this one is a personal thing. I don't care if I lose my SMS. I don't hold every text message as if it were a precious illumination by DaVinci, however I know that some people do. There are apps in the market, like SMS Backup and Restore and SMS Backup+ for example, that will restore SMS messages, even when moving between ROM's but they are not a cure all. If problems develop after restoring, then you want to roll back that restore.

Other than that, what else needs to be restored from an old ROM? Any config’s or screen setups would have to done over again anyway. You would want to take advantage of any features the new ROM has so restoring old setups will do more harm than good.

So, after a very long-winded dissertation, backup apps are good for moving from ROM to ROM, you just need to be knowledgeable about what is safe to restore and what is not safe to restore. If you want to sloganize this in very simple terms; backup everything… restore selectively.

Hope this helps!

 

[nate44]

This definitely needs to be stickied. Nice work paintdrinkingpete!

 

[jackmei2]

for titanium backup, I really do recommend getting the paid version, with it you can do batch operations instead of going through each app you have one by one. it's made my downtime between flashing roms really short, and I think I can get up and running within 10-15 minutes because of Tibackup pro.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

for titanium backup, I really do recommend getting the paid version, with it you can do batch operations instead of going through each app you have one by one. it's made my downtime between flashing roms really short, and I think I can get up and running within 10-15 minutes because of Tibackup pro.

I have the paid version too, so I can't remember what exactly is part of the free version (but I did use it a few times so I know it is sufficient), but I believe you can do batch backup and restore jobs with the free version as well.

Either way, I find that there are really only a handful of apps that I really need to backup/restore, and frankly, doing it manually never takes that much longer, IMO, and gives you a bit more control over what data you're working with. Probably the best practice would be to do a batch backup (to make sure you have everything and/or ANYTHING you may need later), but still do a manual restore for those apps that require it. Just my 2?.

 

[peters4n6]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

Confused as to why you're using Titanium Backup AND My Backup. Does one really need both? It seems like you're backing up the same stuff twice.

 

[Cyber Warrior]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

Confused as to why you're using Titanium Backup AND My Backup. Does one really need both? It seems like you're backing up the same stuff twice.

Using Titanium to backup/restore apps and MyBackup for call logs, sms, mms, etc..

I'll add this threads link next to PvilleComps link in the second post of the sticky "How to Backup, Restore & Install ROMs on the Thunderbolt"

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

Confused as to why you're using Titanium Backup AND My Backup. Does one really need both? It seems like you're backing up the same stuff twice.

As Cyber Warrior said, Titanium Backup works much better for backing up Apps and their respective data, but MyBackup is generally better for backing up things like text messages, call logs, contacts and calendar entries (especially for those who don't sync with Google), and also things like HTC home settings and music playlists.

In short, each app is backing up different data.

Using Titanium to backup/restore apps and MyBackup for call logs, sms, mms, etc..

I'll add this threads link next to PvilleComps link in the second post of the sticky "How to Backup, Restore & Install ROMs on the Thunderbolt"

Thanks!

 

[nate44]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

This guide should not be overlooked

 

[ssethv]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

BUMP... this should be included in the uber thread

 

[swieder]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

Using Titanium to backup/restore apps and MyBackup for call logs, sms, mms, etc..

I'll add this threads link next to PvilleComps link in the second post of the sticky "How to Backup, Restore & Install ROMs on the Thunderbolt"

Great guide. Thanks for the tutorial as I prepared my 1st custome ROM on my Thunderbolt.

 

[nate44]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

bump

 

[nate44]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

Grats on the sticky Pete. A lot of noobs problems stem from restoring the wrong data, and now they have no excuse!

 

[recDNA]

So if I install a new rom and touchdown automatically installs from the market I just need to go to titanium restore apps>touchdown and all of my touchdown settings will be restored?

Is it safe to restore the tbolt stock email app data this way as well?

 

[cplayer2]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

My inspiration for this post comes straight from PvilleComp's tutorial: What to back up and restore when switching ROM's over on the Incredible section of these boards. I've copied his post directly on the second post of this thread.

First, there are 3 apps that I recommend every rooted android user have if they are planning on flashing ROMs:
ROM Manager
Titanium Backup
MyBackup

I do recommend getting the PRO versions of these apps, especially if you plan on using them frequently, but the free version should work fine if you just want to to try them out.

Basically the goal here is to back as much stuff up as possible to make restoring your phone after a ROM install as painless as possible while still preserving the perfect state you've worked so hard to get your Android phone to on your current OS configuration.

This is the method that I use, it may not be the only one, but it's worked well for me. The most part, I had to learn by trial and error, as it was hard to find a definitive guide on how to do this, which is I thought I'd put this together.

Suggestion/Warning: Check "Settings --> Privacy" to see if you have Google enabled to back up your settings. If not, your apps will not automatically restore from the market, as described in part 2 of this guide. If you don't want to enable this setting, you will have to manually re-install your apps from the market or from backup -- be sure to backup what you need!



Part 1: Preparing your existing configuration

NOTE: Before doing any of this I recommend going into the Market and checking your apps for any available updates -- this will ensure that all of your backup data matches the version for the app you're trying to restore.

1. MyBackup

- Select "Backup" --> "Data" --> "Local (/mnt/sdcard)"
- Chose what you want to have backed up. I usually check everything except for "System Settings", "Contacts", and "Calendar" (reasons described in the PvilleComp's guide)
NOTE: "Android Home" refers to your home screen setup. I've only ever used it with Sense-based ROMs, but it seems to work pretty well. Use with caution when going from one Android and/or Sense version to another. If you do restore your homescreen icons, often times certain widgets will appear with an error; simply removing and re-adding them on the homescreen will usually fix it.
- Because it bears repeating: DO NOT BACKUP SYSTEM SETTINGS -- Unless you really know what you're doing, this will most likely only cause more harm than good.
- Create backup
Click to view quoted image


2. Titanium

- Click on "Backup/Restore" at the top of the page

- Go through the list of apps and preform a backup of each app that you will want to restore data. Avoid all "system" apps; the ones to focus on should primarily be apps downloaded from the market or pre-loaded apps that have data worth recovering (again, see PvilleComp's list below for guidance). Apps with logon information or saved progress are the prime candidates. Also, any non-market apps that you want to be able to easily restore. Alternatively, you could do a batch job to backup all user apps, just to make sure you have everything.

Click to view quoted image


3. ROM Manager

- ROM Manager is best used for one single purpose: Flashing Clockwork Recovery. This is the recovery partition that you can boot to in order to install ROMs and preform various other tasks. There are features in ROM Manager that allow you to complete certain tasks directly from the app, such as backing up and restoring ROMs, and installing new ROMs as well. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT INSTALLING APPS OR ANY OTHER TASKS FROM THE ROM MANAGER APP UI. INSTEAD, BOOT INTO THE RECOVERY PARTITION AND PERFORM ALL TASKS FROM THERE. A lot of folks that try to use ROM Manager to install ROMs often report more problems/bugs than those who don't.

For more info on using ROM Manager and Clockwork Recovery to install ROMs and preform Nandroid backup/restore jobs, please see Cyber Warriors guide here:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/thu...-backup-restore-install-roms-thunderbolt.html


Part 2: Restoring data

After the new ROM has been installed, the phone will reboot. You will have to go through the setup wizard and enter your account info, etc. Once that is done, the default home screen will load and an initial sync will begin. This first sync *should* include the app market re-downloading and installing all of your apps. You can check the progress of this by opening the Market, pressing the MENU button and clicking on "My Apps". Let this process finish completely before starting the restore jobs.

1. Titanium

- Once again, click on "Backup/Restore" at the top of the page

- Go through the apps you backed up, and select "restore". For most apps, they will have already been re-installed on the initial sync, so you only have to restore the DATA. For non-Market apps and widgets, you may also have to restore the app as well as the data.

2. MyBackup

- Select "Restore: --> "Data" --> "Local". You'll see a list of available backups, most likely you'll want to choose the most recent one.

- Select all items to restore (be sure not to include "System Settings" if it is listed).

- This process may take a while, especially contacts (if you chose to back them up) and HTC Home (the home screen configurations)...just sit back and wait

- Once finished, reboot the phone


That should do it! Once restarted, your phone should be pretty much set and be back to a very similar configuration as you had before.

i did everything per your instructions...but on the last step (reboot - after restoring titanium and mybackup) nothing is showing up (apps, texts, contacts, etc) after the reboot....am i missing something here?

 

[cplayer2]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

nor does it recognize my sim card????

 

[tjloa69]

Re: [Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installi

do you install these before or after you root?

 

[recDNA]

The first step is to root. I recommend the tool in the next thread. Read the first post completely so you understand whar the tool does.

Most importantly, read cyberwarrier's thread below the tool thread. It completely answers every question youve asked. http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=123060

[GUIDE] How To Root/Unroot The Thunderbolt with Revolutionary

http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=179367

[ALL IN ONE] The HTC Thunderbolt Tool!