rom flashing general question

[boathead]

i've never really been a rom person, though with my gnex being dissed by google i'm going to try a few.

my question is not device specific though, as i have a galaxy s, t-prime, and n7.

when i flash a rom, is there a way to not have to go thru the downloading of apps all over again...i figure that i save data in my backup...surely i could somehow use it.

any help is appreciated. right now im running cm10.2, but i'd like to try a few others, but not if i have to go thru the whole rigamarole again and again.

 

[Rukbat]

You can run Titanium Backup to back up all your apps, then use it to reinstall them in the new ROM. If you use an app like Super Backup to back TB up, you'll get an .apk file and if you run that in the new ROM, you'll have TB running with no downloading at all.

That's one way. I'm sure at least a few other people will post other ways.

 

[krikit]

I just use ES file explorer for individual app backups (straight to sd card). Works pretty well when changing roms or devices.

Edit: Incidentally, it also has an option to backup the app data, as well.

 

[funkylogik]

In your OP, if you mean using the data part of a nandroid backup to restore apps then i dont really recommend it. That defeats the purpose of the data wipe and is like doing a dirty flash which you dont wana do when going from 4.3 to 4.4. Titanium Pro is well worth the money imo and a data wipe in recovery shouldnt touch the backup file (ive never owned a nexus though so i dont know how different things are) :thumbup:

 

[boathead]

thanks folks. gonna try titanium. btw, i never knew what a dirty flash was. nice to know.

i've only gotten roms from xda. if there are other sources, let me know please.

 

[funkylogik]

I hate XDA so my main source apart from here is Google Plus (G+)
I dont use it like i use facebook (to keep up with friends etc) i mainly use it for android related stuff.
Most dev teams have a "community" on G+ and if you search the communities, theres probably some great gnex ones :thumbup:

 

[krikit]

i've only gotten roms from xda. if there are other sources, let me know please.

Right here in android forums, each phone specific forum had a sub-forum called "all things root". This is typically a good place to find some roms people are flashing for that device.

 

[iowabowtech]

Another vote for Titanium for play store apps and their data in particular. Always nice to have a recent nandroid backup on hand for a total restore if things ever go bad and you need to return to a working, booting setup.