CWM & TWRP on same device???

[ouch1976]

Sorry for a relatively newbie question, but are CWM and TWRP mutually exclusive? In other words, if you have CWM installed, and then you install TWRP, can you get back into CWM without "uninstalling" TWRP? And if you installed TWRP last, would you need to re-install CWM or would it be sufficient to just delete the TWRP folder from your device? I assume whichever recovery was installed last will overwrite the previous version, but I'm not positive how it works. Any insight would be appreciated...

 

[ExtremeNerd]

Short answer, you can't have both at the same time. When you flash a recovery, it overwrites the previous one.

 

[ouch1976]

Yeah...kind of what I suspected. Now a follow up question...is there any reason to keep a TWRP folder on a device if I've switched to CWM? I don't need the backups anymore...is there any other information in that folder?

 

[iowabowtech]

Yeah...kind of what I suspected. Now a follow up question...is there any reason to keep a TWRP folder on a device if I've switched to CWM? I don't need the backups anymore...is there any other information in that folder?

No. Not unless you think you might switch back soon. Otherwise it can be deleted.

 

[ouch1976]

OK. Last question...how much information is included in a recovery backup (either TWRP or CWM? Are all your passwords stored? Is there any activation process after reloaded a backup?

 

[ExtremeNerd]

OK. Last question...how much information is included in a recovery backup (either TWRP or CWM? Are all your passwords stored? Is there any activation process after reloaded a backup?

The NANdroid backup is literally everything. It is a carbon copy of your phone. If I got my hands on it, and restored it to my phone, I would have your phone now. It is difficult to decipher on it's own, but with a compatible phone, it can cause trouble.

That being said, there's little risk. I don't think there's any way of knowing what type of phone you have, and restoring a NANdroid which isn't compatible is grounds for a brick. I don't worry about keeping my backups on SD card or on the cloud personally.

 

[ouch1976]

So if I bought a used device and someone left their backups in a TWRP folder, I would effectively have access to all his/her accounts if I restored the file?

 

[ExtremeNerd]

Unfortunately, yes, you very well could.

 

[ouch1976]

Wow...that's pretty dangerous...

 

[ExtremeNerd]

Agreed, it can be. That's why you have to take steps to protect yourself. Always use a screen lock. If you sell your phone, delete EVERYTHING from the internal memory and SD card. There are plenty of things in this world that are dangerous, but common sense and prudence usually prevent them.

 

[Hadron]

Wow...that's pretty dangerous...

But if this wasn't the case, the nandroid wouldn't be doing the job it is intended to do.

It's no more dangerous than selling a phone without wiping it first. And if you included your SD card with the phone you'd presumably wipe your photos, music and other personal files off it first, so any backups (nandroid or app/data/sms) are just the same.