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Root Titanium Backup Will Not Back Up Your System Apps

J

jetblack

Newbie
From the Titanium Backup Technical FAQ (no direct link, just scroll down):

  • #3: What can it back up ?
    • All the applications you have installed, included protected ones,
    • All the data and settings of these applications,
    • Most (or all) of your phone's settings and data.
    • NOTE: It will not backup the system applications from your ROM. Only their settings will be backed up.
Click to expand...
The NOTE is the gotcha. This seems to have tricked a number of people (including myself), so I thought I'd post a warning. Do not use Titanium Backup to back up system apps (that is, stock apps in /system/app) if you intend to restore them later. It will only back up the data associated with those apps, not the actual apks.

If you want to remove apks from the /system/app directory, the best ways to do so are:

  1. From the command line (If you run Velocity, it includes scripts to do this for you. Otherwise, you can use good old 'cp' or 'cat' to copy the apk, then 'rm' to delete it from /system/app.)
  2. With Root Explorer or a similar root-enabled file manager
 
Ahhhh... that makes sense. I never figured that out. In the end I gave up on the thing and moved to command line.

Oh, and by the way, assuming you're moving the apks out of the /system partition, you'll almost definitely need to use cp or cat, then rm, not mv.
 
This is annoying. I went to Cognition and made sure to hit the "Back up all apps and data" before I did so. Now I have to work out how to get back one or two of the system apps that I actually wanted to keep.
 
I wish I would have known about this about 5 months ago. Before there was definite plans for Froyo coming to the Ally, I rooted my phone and "backed up" all the system apps I planned on deleting.

After rooting and having an unsuccessful flash, I decided to remove the root but I had to place back the apps that I deleted for any future upgrades from Verizon.

I found out that Titanium doesn't backup your stock apps the hard way, and I really was disappointed in the app's failure to make it clearer to the user. I ended up having to wait until the Froyo update and having to get that update via LG Uploader.

I was disappointed in Titanium and I don't ever plan on using it again due to this problem. Luckily, I did not pay for the app.
 
when i tried using Titanium Backup is was waiting for rooting rights for like 15 seconds then received an error message saying "Sorry, I could not acquire root privilieges. this app will *not* work! please verify that your ROM is rooted and includes BusyBox, and try again." any suggestions?
 
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