Backup and restore question

[Lettuce]

I'm using NeatROM Lite v3.5 as i had some random unexpected unexplainable freezes where it was stuck on yellow triangle boot screen. I simply booted to recovery and repeated the ROM install with full wipe beforehand. This doesn't bother me but I lose all my settings (simple things like notification sound for text messages and wifi saved passwords). Is there a backup/restore app that I need to be using to restore all the little personal things? I just can't figure out titanium despite getting the pro version I reckon I have old versions of stuff backed up then restored over newer versions that came with the ROM.

Is there a backup/restore process that will put back my apps from the market and my personal preferences at the touch of a few buttons? Just in case I get a random boot loop problem again?

 

[naith_kk]

Titanium Backup does what you need. Seeing you want to backup for the purpose of restoration of the same android version as a reset of sorts, the instructions are pretty simple:

Upon running Titanium backup, enter its preferences and define a backup folder where Titanium will store your backups into (preferrably external sd card if you have one slotted).

Once that's done, In the Titanium main window, there's a checkbox icon on the top right, tap that and you'll see a list of "tasks" in their respective categories - (lets just say you want to save the apps you downloaded from google play together with system apps and data) - so tap on the run button next to "Backup all user apps + system data" in the "backup" category.

The next page is a conditions page where you can choose which apps you want to include/exclude from the backup procedure, and what should Titanium do if the app you're backing up is currently running/active. Set these based on personal preference (normally it defaults to all so you don't have to change anything at this point). Once you're satisfied with the conditions, simply press the green check button on the top right to begin the backup process... and all you have to do is wait until the backup procedure is complete.

From here onwards, anytime you update apps or system apps to a newer version, just use the "Backup new user+system apps & newer versions" task... titanium will check and update all backups that have been changed/updated. (you have the choice of either doing this manually or set an automated schedule for it)

To restore the apps, the procedure is the same thing as backing up steps above. Install Titanium Backup on your device - and run it. In the Titanium Backup window, go to preference and point the new backup folder to the folder in your external SD card. Once done, Press the checkbox icon again on the top right on the main window, and scroll down the list of "tasks" to the "restore" category and tap on the run button labelled "Restore missing apps + all system data"... you'll encounter a similar conditions page again (which defaults to all). All that's left to do is Press the green check icon and Titanium Backup will do the rest... once done, reboot your device (if necessary)

Note: Titanium backup defaults the backup folder to your internal USB storage. If you plan on doing a factory reset and happened to check the option of "erasing USB storage" together with factory reset, chances are your backups that are stored in there will be deleted... hence the reason to change the backup folder to the external SD card for better security.

Note2: Not all apps will have the data successfully backed up (particularly games and their save data) so those might need a little bit of advanced knowledge in backing up successfully through other means.

Note3: By consistently using Titanium to backup system apps, your issue of old data overwriting new data is solved for the same ROM... but if you change ROMs to something else or upgrading major android versions, then you need to be careful in restoring system apps.

 

[Lettuce]

Hey Naith thanks for taking the time to type all that information out, I read all of it and really appreciate the help. I had a few hours to play with Titanium last night and I am getting the hang of it. I discovered the Legend so now I know what all those icons mean and why things are in different coloured text!

Yes, my user apps and their data was never a problem really, apart from some which just didn't backup whatsoever, only their data, but I found those and restored them eventually. The issues I had was with all the system apps. If I backed up system apps that I had when I was running ICS, then flashed a JB ROM, there appeared to be duplicates or similarities when scrolling through the ALL list and it was difficult to know what was new/old and if I could restore data from an old system app to a newer version of the same system app.

In my first post I meant to say NeatROM Lite v4.2 (JB) was giving me problems with hanging on Yellow Triangle but now I'm on v3.5 (ICS) it seems a lot more stable.

In hindsight it seems better to only update the user apps and their data, and leave the system apps alone. Would you agree? And accept as part of flashing different ROMs that the system apps might change. But then if you have any data linked to the system apps when is it and when isn't it safe to restore this to potentially new versions of system apps? I think this may have caused the stability issues I was having with NeatROM Lite v4.2 (JB).

Thanks again for your contribution.

Lettuce

 

[naith_kk]

Glad to be of assistance Lettuce. Yes, Titanium looks daunting at first, but once you meddle around with it a bit - it's actually quite easy to use.

You don't have to limit backups to simply backing up user apps and data alone. You can perform complex backups of separate user apps and system apps, it just takes a bit more effort. One such method would be to backup, say: user apps and data first on a empty titanium backup folder. After the backup procedure is complete, rename the folder using a file manager into something easily referenced like "titanium_userapps".

Once done with user apps, have titanium backup begin backing up system apps (it should recreate an empty backup folder and begin backing up your data - if not, create an empty backup folder as defined in titanium's preferences)... and once finished - like before, rename the folder with proper references as well e.g. "titanium_system_ics".

That way, you have two seperate folders holding user apps and system apps separately where you can restore based on however you like (simply change the backup folder in preferences to restore). The only downside to this method is - it is a tedious operation when you update your backups, but you get more flexibility in what you restore. I'd personally do this as preparation prior to upgrade/downgrade firmwares, because if there was a missing app found only in ICS for example (like Samsung's News and Weather) - I can restore that app to JB selectively... but the gist of it is that you have control over your backups.