SoggyNugget
Newbie
I want to flash a custom ROM on my nexus but if I don't like it I don't know how to get back to the stock ROM. This is probaley a dumb question but I'm pretty new to rooting. Any help would be appreciated.
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Root Stock ROM
- Thread starter SoggyNugget
- Start date
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- Tags
- nexus 5
morgankslade
Android Expert
Rule of thumb....
Make a backup of current system (nandroid)
Then whenever you want to go back you can.
Make a backup of current system (nandroid)
Then whenever you want to go back you can.
SoggyNugget
Newbie
\
Ok Thanks
Make sure you have a toolkit like WUGS up and running and all your drivers are correct. It will allow you to restore should anything go wrong with flashing.
SoggyNugget
Newbie
You'll want to make a nandroid backup in recovery. If you don't like the ROM you restore the nandroid and its like nothing ever happened
I was watching a video and it said before flashing the ROM do a factory rest. Won't that delete the nandroid backup?
xdrc45
Android Enthusiast
No a factory reset won't wipe your internal SD card. Which is where your nandroid is saved.
It's always best practice to have a stock nandroid backup and a separate EFS backup of your N5 saved on your devices internal SD card and also both of those backup's saved safely off of the device and onto like a PC.
Before making any further modifications or flashing any ROM's, make sure that you make the stock nandroid backup and the EFS backup.
That way in the event that something should go wrong you always have a backup saved internally and externally. If by accident you did wipe your internal SD card, your can then sideload your nandroid or EFS backup thought recovery and restore your device easily.
As a rule of thumb for me.... I always have a stock rooted nandroid backup, a current nandroid of the custom ROM that I'm using and a seperate EFS backup, all saved on the device.
That way if I'm flashing a new ROM/setup and or making any modifications and if by some chance something was to happen or go wrong... Your covered and can restore your device to any setup/ROM that you have a backup for.
It's easily manageable to keep the necessary nandroid backups and EFS backup on your device and move any of the other nandroids to a PC, external HD, cloud... etc.
Just a couple questions for you... Just to make sure that your ready to flash a custom ROM.
Have you unlocked the bootloader yet?
Have you installed a custom recovery? If so are you using, CWM, TWRP, Philz CWM based?
and are you rooted?
Rxpert83
Dr. Feelgood
Just to add to what xdrc said - a factory data reset would normally wipe your internal storage, which would wipe your nandroid.
However, custom recoveries such as twrp are programmed to skip the internal storage. Music, photos, nandroids, ext will survive from a factory reset.
It provides an alternative "wipe internal storage" option for if that's what you truly mean to do.
However, custom recoveries such as twrp are programmed to skip the internal storage. Music, photos, nandroids, ext will survive from a factory reset.
It provides an alternative "wipe internal storage" option for if that's what you truly mean to do.
SoggyNugget
Newbie
Yup, I am rooted and have flash a custom recovery (TWRP).
Also, I'm not sure whats an EFS backup is.
Hook
Ever since DU... ;-)
It's the partition with critical phone information. If something happens to it, you won't be able to use your phone. When you go into TWRP and select backup, that is one of the partitions available to back up. Check only that partition and do a separate backup. As xdrc45 said, keep the backup on your internal storage and copy it to your pc.
nitramus
Well-Known Member
I have a better one. Install multirom manager http://www.androidrootz.com/2013/12/multirom-how-to-install-multiple-roms.html?m=1 you can bualboot into what ever rom you want and not lose you "default"/stock rom. The roms will share user files but you will have to reinstall apps. Since its only for testing just install the small ones you use on a daily basis. Don't like the rom the remove it and try an other.
Still do a backup before installing multirom and follow instructions for proper place to install rom from twrp recovery.
Still do a backup before installing multirom and follow instructions for proper place to install rom from twrp recovery.
xdrc45
Android Enthusiast
Any time you flash to a new ROM your gonna want to do a clean install and wipe the user data... See, user data not only contains your downloaded user apps and so forth, but it also contains system user data settings as well, like device settings that you personally changed, which would linger over into the new ROM being flashed and cause conflicts.
A factory reset throught TWRP is usually sufficient. This will prevent any of those leftover system settings from causing conflicts in the new ROM.
From there if you are just flashing an updated ROM version you can just "Dirty Flash" the ROM, without performing a wipe and leave your user data intact.
Which still leaves the issue of losing user data (apps, pics) whenever flashing a new ROM or doing a clean ROM install...That's were apps like Titanium backup or Helium come in handy and backing up pics and files to a cloud based storage.
The EFS backup is only a just in case scenario... If somehow you accidentally wiped that partition or a bad flash wiped the EFS partition. Which would cause the phone to loose the IMEI/MEID # and would wipe the radio/radio settings. At this point the phone then won't connect to your cellular network, wif and etc and literally the phone becomes useless.
Only your IMEI/MEID # work with your N5. Your EFS backup won't work on any another N5 and vise versa.
Thats when you would use the EFS backup and restore the devices IMEI/MEID and radio/radio settings.
ok thanks. I don't care about most of my game settings (most of the ones I care about are online so the settings will be restored when I log in) and I back up my pictures and videos before I do anything major so that I can restore them easily. I do have titanium backup but I'm not sure I'm using it right. at any rate I think I'm getting things backed up ultimately. I've never had to do a restore. When I got this phone I didn't do anything but log into google and all of my app icons showed up (but I had to re-download some of them).
xdrc45
Android Enthusiast
Your welcome!
Sounds like you got most everything backed up like you should.... The nandroid, EFS, pics and apps. For Titanium backup just go to - backup and restore, and then look through all your app and make sure that there is a current backup for each app. It will say if the app is backed up or not. If non then just run the auto backup.
Yeah most of the time all of my apps are restored once I login to Google and like you said... Im not to worried about game Settings either.