So, what can Titanium do for me?

[caverman]

Again, newbie question here.

I ended up rooting my phone (which was scary) in order to get an nandroid backup. Now I've been suggested to look at Titanium for a backup.

I started asking if an nandroid or Titanium be able to restore all my apps and data if I were to go get a new phone (I'll be upgrade available in a year) but I've been told....No. Using an nandroid is device/ROM specific and that if I were to get a new phone I would pretty much start over with downloading my apps, setting wallpapers and ringtones, etc.

Well, I'm going to say that that really sucks. Coming from iOS it was really cool that when I upgraded to a new iPhone I could just plug it into iTunes and do a restore. It would put everything I had from my old phone on to my new one in less than 30 min.

So, with that being said, what does having a backup from Titanium do for me? I guess if I lost or broke my phone and I bought another Galaxy S3 I should be able to restore it?

For that matter, I'm second guessing even rooting my phone. I don't plan on doing custom ROM or anything. I did it because I thought I had to in order to make backups but then it sounds like backups won't help me if I upgrade or loose/break the phone.

Is there no app out there that can restore a new Android phone with the apps and settings I've already setup on my current phone?

 

[Ssith]

titanium creates individual backups of each APK you tell it to. it backs up the app and the data. you can then install those apps on any phone you want, as long as it's also rooted and has TiBu installed on it.

TiBu doesn't make an image of your phone, that's what nandriod does, and the nandriod backup is only good on the one phone, you can't port it to another phone.

one big difference between iOS and android is that android has WAY more hardware configurations than IOS, and can't support every app on every configuration, so there is no way to have a one-stop universal restore location. but, if you've backed up your S3 with TiBu, and then put those backups on an SD card, and then moved that SD card to any other android phone that's rooted and has TiBu on it, you can open it and get them back if they're compatible with the phone.

 

[caverman]

titanium creates individual backups of each APK you tell it to. it backs up the app and the data. you can then install those apps on any phone you want, as long as it's also rooted and has TiBu installed on it.

TiBu doesn't make an image of your phone, that's what nandriod does, and the nandriod backup is only good on the one phone, you can't port it to another phone.

one big difference between iOS and android is that android has WAY more hardware configurations than IOS, and can't support every app on every configuration, so there is no way to have a one-stop universal restore location. but, if you've backed up your S3 with TiBu, and then put those backups on an SD card, and then moved that SD card to any other android phone that's rooted and has TiBu on it, you can open it and get them back if they're compatible with the phone.

Makes sense.

Yeah....I guess it's the same as a Mac vs PC. Mac only has their hardware/drivers to deal with vs PC has to deal with a lot more out there. I can see where it would make it near impossible to restore everything on a new phone.

I'll look more into Titanium but I'm curious what others do about backups if they don't want to root. I know I was real nervous to root and if I had a new phone with a warranty I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do it.....at least not a first and that's when you would want it rooted to be able to run Titanium to restore the app files.

 

[funkylogik]

Without rooting you can use the Helium app to backup apps,data :thumbup:
Since youre rooted and made a nandroid... why not try some custom roms
Nandroid is mainly for people who flash things so if anything goes wrong like a bootloop, you can just restore it to where everything worked :thumbup:

 

[iowabowtech]

Think of a nandroid as an exact snapshot of your phone at that point in time. Every app, setting, email, text, last phone call, the whole enchilada.

TiBu can do a lot more than most people use it for. You can backup system data with it also and there's a scheduler for automatic backups. Because a lot of people use it to restore apps and the associated app data when changing roms, most end up ditching the system data stuff since it tends to bork things when restored across to different roms.

So if you changed phones, you could restore your apps and app data after transferring the TiBu folder from your previous phone to the new one. You would have to set up all the other phone settings from scratch unless it were a replacement of the exact same phone model in which case you could use a nandroid and be done with it.

I change roms a lot so I'm used to changing all the usual suspect settings when I do a clean install. You'd mentioned 30 minutes earlier...that's about how long it takes me to get everything done which includes the TiBu app restore.

 

[funkylogik]

^same lol
Other than the new CM 10.2 nightly where i spent an hour trying to turn off the stupid button backlights only to find out theyve left that setting out of the build :banghead::banghead:

 

[caverman]

Thanks for the heads up everyone. I still trying to learn the android world after spending about 6 years in iOS.

I can see some advantages with iOS but I'm bored with it. I was ready for something new. Two weeks with android and I'm really liking my S3 so far. Figured I would give it at least a year until my upgrade. At this rate, if I can get my Titanium configured to make scheduled backups and I keep up with my Google Contacts I might be on this S3 for over a year.

Thanks for putting up with my newbie questions....

 

[funkylogik]

We love questions lol :beer:
The s3 will be cutting edge for at least another year if samsung stop supporting it and the rom devs dont. Just today i was running android 4.3 on mine (google only released it a few weeks ago) :thumbup: enjoy man :beer:

 

[caverman]

I guess this might need to be a separate thread but I'm on 4.1.2, so what would 4.3 do for me and where do I go to learn where to get it and how to upgrade?

 

[funkylogik]

What phone u on bro?

 

[caverman]

AT&T Galaxy S3

I was just trying to figure out how to add that to my profile to show up under devices and I couldn't find where to do that.

 

[iowabowtech]

I guess this might need to be a separate thread but I'm on 4.1.2, so what would 4.3 do for me and where do I go to learn where to get it and how to upgrade?

I don't believe 4.3 is available yet for your phone. In fact, I think 4.2.2 is still just around the corner unless you are rooted and running a custom rom. They're often a little ahead of the stock curve. If you have any specific questions about your S3, I'd advise asking them in our S3 Forum. For best results, mention that you own an ATT version when posting. In case there's any carrier based nuances, it can help others to tweak their answers accordingly.

I was just trying to figure out how to add that to my profile to show up under devices and I couldn't find where to do that.

There's a green bar near the top of every forum page. At the far left side of that, click on UserCP, then "edit your options", there you'll find a field for current devices.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah 4.2 isnt even official for the s3 and tbh i can see them going straight to 4.3 (youll be waiting a long time though) For custom roms, check out the ATT All Things Root section of the s3 forum :thumbup: