[HOW-TO] TiBu The Easy Way!

[2defmouze]

Followed all the steps and it worked like a charm. Thanks for the effort.

The only thing not mentioned is when i first fired up TiBu (after flash) is a warning popped up telling me my Android ID number had changed and did i want to restore it. I flipped a coin and opted to change the ID number back.

Yeah honestly I go back and forth on that one as well. It's a relatively new feature of TiBu.. so I went a long time just having my Android ID# change every time I flashed something, and now that I have the option I don't really know what to do with it, lol. I usually just have it ignore it since I never have issues with it anyway.

 

[zulu308]

i just started using tibu recently and only backup the green stuff and apps like evernote, dropbox, pandora. Only because I hate having to retype my username and pwd. Back up the word prediction one as well so I don't start all over again .

 

[Empty Hand]

The labels are great! I selected all my apps that I want to restore data. When going back through for the "No Data Apps", should I just select the downloaded apps (the names that appear white), or also select any in green (I think these are system apps) and red (also some sort of system apps)? Thank you!

 

[2defmouze]

The labels are great! I selected all my apps that I want to restore data. When going back through for the "No Data Apps", should I just select the downloaded apps (the names that appear white), or also select any in green (I think these are system apps) and red (also some sort of system apps)? Thank you!

Don't do red, system apps are a no-no regardless of restoring them without data... Yes you can get away with it sometimes but I'm in this to help people avoid all issues, not gamble, lol.

Regarding green/white.. I can't think off the top of my head which is which.. Just use your head and common sense tho, if it looks like a system app leave it alone.

Remember, as flashers using Gapps packs we wind up with some Google apps like Gmail, maps, etc installed as user apps because we had to download them separately, while normally they would be system apps. These Google apps are OK to restore WITHOUT data, as I noted earlier in the guide, but never restore Google apps with data.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Empty Hand]

Don't do red, system apps are a no-no regardless of restoring them without data... Yes you can get away with it sometimes but I'm in this to help people avoid all issues, not gamble, lol.

Regarding green/white.. I can't think off the top of my head which is which.. Just use your head and common sense tho, if it looks like a system app leave it alone.

Remember, as flashers using Gapps packs we wind up with some Google apps like Gmail, maps, etc installed as user apps because we had to download them separately, while normally they would be system apps. These Google apps are OK to restore WITHOUT data, as I noted earlier in the guide, but never restore Google apps with data.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

One example of a questionable green app is Nova Launcher, which is usually included with AOKP roms (which I almost exclusively run). Assuming it's included in the rom, I know I don't need to restore. However, in the event it's not included, I want it to be restored. Do you suggest just re-installing from the play store if it's not in the rom, or potentially restoring an app that's already installed? Or am I thinking about this too much and I just need to move on?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[2defmouze]

One example of a questionable green app is Nova Launcher, which is usually included with AOKP roms (which I almost exclusively run). Assuming it's included in the rom, I know I don't need to restore. However, in the event it's not included, I want it to be restored. Do you suggest just re-installing from the play store if it's not in the rom, or potentially restoring an app that's already installed? Or am I thinking about this too much and I just need to move on?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Move on... Lol

Nah with launchers you have simple options, since the launcher backs up your settings and stuff anyway, if you later want it back on a ROM it didn't come preinstalled in, I would do as you said and just download it from Play then restore your settings and desktop stuff within Nova.. It should work fine I've done it before

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[jean15paul]

Yeah honestly I go back and forth on that one as well. It's a relatively new feature of TiBu.. so I went a long time just having my Android ID# change every time I flashed something, and now that I have the option I don't really know what to do with it, lol. I usually just have it ignore it since I never have issues with it anyway.

Huh? I wonder if keeping your previous Android ID# would prevent the issue of everytime yo flash a rom you end up with a new device authorized in Google Music? If you keep you ID number the same, would Google Music recognize that it's the same device and not create a new authorization?

 

[dmmarck]

Huh? I wonder if keeping your previous Android ID# would prevent the issue of everytime yo flash a rom you end up with a new device authorized in Google Music? If you keep you ID number the same, would Google Music recognize that it's the same device and not create a new authorization?

Yes, it will. This exact usage was just discussed in the AOKP thread, seems very interesting.

 

[2defmouze]

Huh? I wonder if keeping your previous Android ID# would prevent the issue of everytime yo flash a rom you end up with a new device authorized in Google Music? If you keep you ID number the same, would Google Music recognize that it's the same device and not create a new authorization?

I've heard that is correct... however its not a big deal. Google did away with that limit of device deauthorizations, for now at least, so you can clear them out anyway. If they hadn't believe me I'd be mad.. between all the flashing and setting up I do on my Gnex and Nex7 I'd be out of luck, lol.

But if its a concern then sure, have it revert to the previous Android ID when you launch it. I have not heard of any issues caused either way to this point.

 

[Nechasin]

I've heard that is correct... however its not a big deal. Google did away with that limit of device deauthorizations, for now at least, so you can clear them out anyway. If they hadn't believe me I'd be mad.. between all the flashing and setting up I do on my Gnex and Nex7 I'd be out of luck, lol.

But if its a concern then sure, have it revert to the previous Android ID when you launch it. I have not heard of any issues caused either way to this point.

I've a a few issues with apps not restoring correctly before this was implemented. Presto was one app. It is a purchased app that works with other apps to speed up playback of audio. It wouldn't restore properly and said it didn't have authorization. I had to manually install it from play store. Since the restore Android ID was implemented by TiBu, I haven't hadd this issue. I suspect that will get more important as more anti-piracy checks are implemented by apps.

 

[2defmouze]

@Nechasin.. makes sense, I might have had one app thing similar to that or heard about a few offhand. Since it's an option maybe I'll add that in the tips section or just to the main guide. Will research a bit and wait til I learn more about pros/cons of either choice though.. I like to be thorough

 

[Crossfire503]

Thanks for this post. I was getting a feel for much of this recently, thanks to flashing a few different ROMs and needing to rely on Tibu to keep the process of restoring apps reasonable. This guide clarifies much of what I was learning and the filter suggestion, combined with creating an update zip, is amazing. Tibu is an excellent tool, but pretty rough without a guide like this.

 

[Canuckfan]

I've a a few issues with apps not restoring correctly before this was implemented. Presto was one app. It is a purchased app that works with other apps to speed up playback of audio. It wouldn't restore properly and said it didn't have authorization. I had to manually install it from play store. Since the restore Android ID was implemented by TiBu, I haven't hadd this issue. I suspect that will get more important as more anti-piracy checks are implemented by apps.

So what are the steps to backing up your Android ID....do we just have to backup Settings Storage? Then once everything is flashed, we just go into option "Manage Android ID" and restore?

 

[pmcd1962]

So what are the steps to backing up your Android ID....do we just have to backup Settings Storage? Then once everything is flashed, we just go into option "Manage Android ID" and restore?

It will ask you when you first open the app after flashing new ROM. I just followed all the step from the op, so nothing special needs to be done.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[Empty Hand]

2defmouze, Thank you for this guide! I set up TiBu the other day and finally had a chance to do a clean install today using TiBu and following your guide step by step. I had been using mybackup pro, but TiBu is so much faster and using labels to separate data and non data apps is great. This will take a good 30 minutes off my clean install time.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[2defmouze]

2defmouze, Thank you for this guide! I set up TiBu the other day and finally had a chance to do a clean install today using TiBu and following your guide step by step. I had been using mybackup pro, but TiBu is so much faster and using labels to separate data and non data apps is great. This will take a good 30 minutes off my clean install time.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Good to hear.. Yeah that label trick saves me a good 10 minutes off every clean flash as well

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Canuckfan]

Has anyone tried backing up their personal user dictionary with TiBu? Not sure if it'll work going from ICS > JB.

Also, is it ok to backup/restore Google Wallet? I will definitely be resetting it before flashing.

 

[2defmouze]

Has anyone tried backing up their personal user dictionary with TiBu? Not sure if it'll work going from ICS > JB.

Also, is it ok to backup/restore Google Wallet? I will definitely be resetting it before flashing.

Dictionary I've heard is ok.. I use swiftkey so I back that up and restore it with data no problem.

Wallet never restore with data. Before you wipe reset it within the app. Afterwards, you should be alright restoring it without data, just like other Google apps.. Tho since it's a special case app that uses the secure element and all that, I'd rather recommend you find a link and install it fresh. But if you do it without data in tibu it should be alright... Again making sure you reset it before wiping and flashing the new ROM.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[SuperChargedJ]

Thanks for this awesome guide. Went through the first couple of steps so I would be ready when I had to reflash.

 

[jean15paul]

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.
I have been corrected and don't want to put any bad info out there.

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.

Please correct anything that I got wrong. I hope this helps someone.