yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] copkay:
Actually, I don't see any reason it wouldn't. I don't have an emulator set up to test, but since this is all OS level stuff, then yeah, you should be able to do this through an emulator.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Tiggerbits:
I'll see if it is possible, i'm still a newbie when it comes to some of this stuff mind.

Before i unlock and root, just want to check, is there anything that it does not back up? not too worried about sms, and internal storage i will copy manuall ( photos ect)?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] copkay:
Nothing else that I noticed outside of what you mentioned (SMS, SD card).

Actually, I did also notice your ringtone and notification settings don't all seem to restore properly, but that's probably because I was using some that were downloaded through Zedge rather than stock ringtones.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Meaple:
Thanks for the guide. Didn't even realise that the backup was in adb. Doing a backup now so will say if it has worked... or not :P
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Tiggerbits:
Ok, so i preformed a back up. its given me a 600ish meg file.

Unlocked bootloader and rooted.

Now i'm trying to restore the back up. however i get this message -

C:\Users\DF>adb restore H:\GalaxyNexus

adb: unable to open file H:\GalaxyNexus

I have 2 back ups, in 2 different locations. this is the first one.

The second one i try it will bring up in the command line the "help" info

any ideas?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] copkay:
adb restore GalaxyNexus.ab

#place GalaxyNexus.ab in H:/Backup
adb restore /Backup/GalaxyNexus.ab

Try either of those methods, assuming H: is your boot drive.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Tiggerbits:
Not quite aure what i did wrong but the third attempt worked! so thank you very much! :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Meaple:
Yeh restore works a beast. Thank god I don't have to redo all my games :P

Cheers for the guide +1
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] eckischeich:
That's it. ;)

Platform tools were still on revision 9. Thanks for troubleshooting.

Edit:// How long did this process take? Mine is running for about a hour now... ?!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] AWDSM:
Well, I don't seem to be able to restore my stuff:(

I am not getting any error message on my PC. I get the message on my SGN stating that "restore started" and a second later "restore ended". sigh

---------- Post added at 05:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:44 AM ----------

I am afraid I may have messed up the encryption password when setting one while backup. Is there any way of finding out what that is from my backup.ab file?? :D
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] copkay:
Haha um no. That's kinda the point of encryption. Unfortunately if you don't know the encryption password, you're out of luck.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] AWDSM:
Well, yeah.. I mean I know what I meant to set but since there is no confirmation needed of the password when setting it, you can very easily mistype it. And if you did you are screwed if you try to restore your data.

I strongly advise anyone who does this to learn from my mistake and not to set a password:)

BTW could the reason for this be that I've upgraded to 4.0.2 from 4.0.1? No, right?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] copkay:
I've done a restore from 4.0.2 to 4.0.3, so it should work in theory. Out of curiosity, how large is your backup file?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] AWDSM:
230Mb. So my stuff IS there:)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] copkay:
There goes that theory, lol. So just to be sure, in the restore window, you are typing in both your device encryption password (which should be blank if you have not set it in Developer Options on this ROM, or whatever you've set it to if you've done so) and the restore password below that?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Kaiken:
Currently backingup on my mac.

Will probably test if the restore works some other day though. Time to sleep. If this works as intended. Flashing new roms will be a breeze now. Thanks a bunch for this, man!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] NCguy:
I would think this is intended for your first backup prior to being rooted. For subsequent backups you can use titanium which is a lot more robust.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Luxferro:
I only looked through the first page, and part of the second page. I've seen this type of backup being explained before. But in reality how useful will it be if you mess up android and can't boot into the OS?

Can it be restored from the stock recovery as well? If not, then nandroid backups are the more safer method to go I guess.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] AndroidDeveloperLB:
I ask this as a developer...

I already know of Titanium backup. I actually use it and I also use "EaseBackup" which I find better.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Bily42:
Getting empty Backup.ab file

Someone else had the same problem and changed their Desktop Backup password to fix it. Problem is everytime I try to change the password it says: "Failed to set backup password."

I set the password originally by leaving the first space blank and putting in a simple word with no numbers. Does it require a password with numerics? Can't seem to change it now anyway so I guess I'm up the creek without a paddle.

I'm using SimpleADBBackup or HOLO Backup and it goes through all the correct motions but just gives me a 0 byte Backup.ab file.

Can anybody help? :crying:

Nevermind, I fooled around endlessly with it and got a password entered that worked. Have another problem..will post about it later.

Galaxy Tab2 7" GT-P3113 Android 4.2.2
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tsiah:
what did you do with the password?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dez93_2000:
Authenticator success, genneral tips?

Hi all, quick one, I've seen a few people posting about how Google Authenticator failed for them... has it been SUCCESSFUL for anyone here?

Nexus 5, looking to do full system backup then root. I've got 12 authenticator pairings so it would be lovely if I didn't have to unpair them all, and make new pairings later.

Cheers all. And now we're 12 pages deep, is there anything vital which has come up since OPs post? One I've seen is:

(Copkay)

Any more? Thanks. I intend to use: adb backup -f backup20120221.ab -apk -shared -all -nosystem

(Crachel)

edit: p.s.: please can someone remind me how to get your device recognised by adb? I had it the other day...! I'm in CMD in the platform-tools directory, adb devices lists nothing, ditto fastboot devices. Fastboot devices DID list my device, I ran the backup code, it said "adb: unable to connect for backup", and now adb/fastbook don't list it. Odd! Do I need to be at the bootloader?

edit2: changed to -nosystem since i'm not rooted
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] thaik:
My thanks to OP, worked on my HTC One V **EDITED** Worked first time but not anymore

Hey I'd like to give my thanks to the OP for this.

I'm new to the android development community, I'm about to root my device and this is the perfect method for me since it doesn't need root or bootloader unlock and my first risk-free step to entering the realm of Android modding! :laugh:

Tried the following command for now on my HTC One V:

adb backup -all

It back everything up aside from the apps apk themselves without any specific file location, that doesn't include the MiroSD Card.

Managed to find them in Android SDK Platform tools directory:

"C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools"

Got a file of around 150MB named "backup.ab".

Managed to find it by searching it in the C: drive by entering this: *.db which should list all files ending with .db.

Will be doing a more thorough backup with a more refined command and I'll keep you guys updated.

Sorry for being captain obvious for many of you guys, just thought it might be of help to anyone like me before doing it.

**UPDATES**

Alright guys, this is weird, I tried it again and it doesn't work anymore.

Same command:

adb backup -all

It says "Backup starting", then immediately, "Backup finished" with a file of only 0KB.

I tried it many times by starting with a longer command:

adb backup -apk -shared -all -nosystem -f D:\Drivers\External hardware\Cellphones\HTC One V

(T320A)\Backup\Full phone Backup methods\Android SDK Platform Tools\Backup image

\htconev_2014-10-06.ab

Result: No file at all in the default directory or in the specified directory

Then gradually removed some arguments:

adb backup -apk -shared -all -nosystem

Result: No file created

adb backup -apk -shared -all

Result: No file created

skipping to this simple command that worked the first time! :

adb backup -all

Result:

At first it created a file with around 11MB, but as I repeated the process, the file got smaller and smaller until I had a file of 0KB only.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I even unmounted the internal and SD storage drives, used admin command prompt, restarted PC and phone, unplugged-re-plugged USB and set a desktop backup password with no success.

The first time I gave the backup file a password, but now with or without password, no difference.

The first time was so simple, I didn't have to go through all that trouble I did above, just a simple "adb backup -all" and it created a 150MB file in the default SDK Platform Tools directory taking at least several minutes.

Now all I get is a 0KB file. :(

I also tried using ADB backup with a Android Emulator. Bluestacks, and it works perfectly.

The first time it worked on my phone, I did it with Windows 8.1, same with Bluestacks, now I have tried backing up my phone on Windows 7 and it does't work.

There seems to be something wrong with my phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dez93_2000:
Just been playing with this & looks like it works so thanks OP for the detailed instructions.

Question for you guys. I've started the RMA process to replace my buggy Nexus 5 with a new one. I need to backup my current one whichi isn't rooted/bolotloader unlocked, so I'd need to back it up to unlock the bootloader in any case. What do you think it the best way to go from "Current handset, kitkat, lots of app info to backup, locked, unrooted" to "new handset, android L, app info imported from old handset, unlocked, rooted"?

I was thinking:

With current handset:

1. OTA upgrade to L (early/mid Nov)

2. abd backup (this process. Will it still be valid?)

3. revert to factory & post to google

With new handset:

1. OTA upgrade to L

2. unlock bootloader & root (reverts to factory; deletes kitkat)

3. start phone setup & restore from google as normal, which gets all apps back & such, restores accounts, etc, but doesn't restore game progress, wallet info, etc..

3. adb restore from backup

I'm also planning to manually remove all my authenticator pairings, uninstall autheticator, then set them all up manually afterwards. This will be a pain in the arse, but I'm not getting a very positive vibe from this forum that authenticator backups necessarily/ever work? Prepared to be talked out of this opinion though!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dez93_2000:
FWIW: I made 3 backups of increasing inclusivity:

adb backup -f backup20141024.ab -noapk -noshared -all -nosystem

adb backup -f backup20141024apk.ab -apk -noshared -all -nosystem

adb backup -f backup20141024all.ab -apk -shared -all -system

and started last first. The last crashed twice on google sheets. Not sure if I've ever used them, but they seemed to stop the process after sheet stopped twice. No further diminishment of storage space was evident after the warnings.

Doing the middle one now (noshared, nosystem) and it's passed sheets and going strong so hopefully will work out. But hopefully this may help others? I don't know how one would avoid sheets, other than simply -nosystem?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dannyella:
Is it possible to restore a specific app data from a full backup. How to do this???
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dez93_2000:
I had a play with the ab file to decode it & got nowhere. One option, if you're still able to do new backups, would be to do a backup with no packages, then do a backup with only that package (see OP's post, packages section), then do a 'diff' to get what's changed.

Although I suppose you could just do a -noapk -nosystem -noshared and package only the one you want.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bonny1992:
Interesting, very very interesting.

I'll be sure to use this awesome method as soon as I can!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bflmpsvz:
question, how do I restore the backup?

At recovery?

At OS?

Does the backup restore full phone state? I.e. formatted internal memory.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] theodore80:
My restore didn't restore all apps and SMS messages from hangouts? Any ideas/tips?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] schwift:
I've had that happen with the apps, not sure why exactly. I doubt it's still a bug, but the OP mentioned that you had to set a password or sometimes things can fail. As far as texts go, it does not back these up. For that you need to do a manual "adb pull". I don't know the location for hangouts, I want to assume it's the same but texts are located "/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db"

So all in all:

adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db mmssms.db
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Scramjet:
Thanks for the guide guys. I've got a couple questions, as I'm sending in my One M8 for repair service and my data will likely be destroyed. I'd like to backup /sdcard, installed apps (and their data), and system settings, including wallpaper, WiFi passwords, personal dictionary and such.

Firstly, will the adb backup command work effectively for the above requirements using the -nosystem parameter? Or must I absolutely use -system? What is the difference, anyway? What does specifiying -system do, i.e. what else does that parameter make the command back up?

Next, is there a more effective, easier, non-root, preferably free backup service that backs up apps, files and settings but NOT system files? I don't want my current OS back and am expecting HTC to replace my motherboard with one that still has KitKat on it (I upgraded to Lollipop and am regretting it - notifications are really messed up).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] fvisagie:
As opposed to the work-around of 'adb pull /sdcard/.', have you or has anyone else found a proper solution to this problem? On my Google Nexus 7 GSM 'adb backup' also fails 90% of the time when '-shared' is specified. FWIW, desktop backup password and/or backup encryption password don't seem to make any difference.

Thanks,

Francois
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] datguydo:
Does ADB back up everything?

Hi nice pplz,

Does the

adb backup

command create a whole backup where once I root and have a freshly wiped phone, I can use

adb restore

to have it look just like it used to, but rooted? This has been nagging me and I really want to root so thanks in advance.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] trompeteandos:
What I have to do if I want bakcup of apn settings? (and other settings, GPS for example)

Thanks.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] yasharora404:
adb is not recognized

hi there,

Am new to the programming world and am trying to learn to root an android phone. i have 4.3. and for backing up when i typed the 'adb devices' command in command prompt it shows that 'adb' is not recognized. what should i do? what am i missing?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dbareis:
Nothing to do with programming but, the command you typed is unknown. Either you missed a step or you need to update the "path" or you need to make the directory containing the tool the current directory, try googling...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] fvisagie:
[MENTION=6479196]yasharora404[/MENTION],

If you missed a step, it's probably this from the first post:

1. Download and install at least Android SDK Tools (Recommended) from Download Android Studio and SDK Tools. If you want to develop, rather install the Android Studio Package (Recommended) instead.

2. In your Android Studio installation, find and run SDK Manager.exe while connected to the Internet, and ensure at least the following are checked before clicking the Install... button:

2.1. Tools.Android SDK Tools

2.2. Tools.Android SDK Platform-tools

3. If your Platform-tools folder didn't get added to the Windows execution path, you can either

3.1. Add it yourself

3.2. Or execute those commands from within that folder

3.3. Or specify the path to commands in that folder when executing them from another folder

4. If you haven't yet done so, install the USB drivers for your device and enable USB debugging on it, see the USB Driver links on Using Hardware Devices. If you aren't developing, you can skip step 1. If you are using a Google Nexus device, refer to the Google USB Driver link on that page.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] nishuksd:
Help Needed

[MENTION=2791414]copkay[/MENTION]

Hi,

I'm using Sony Xperia L and I'm thinking to resize my partition to give more space for /userdata. But I dont want to mess things so would like to back up my partitions /userdata and /sdcard so that if something goes wrong I can just revert.... Can you help me in this?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] @@RON:
Does this method still works for e.g. HTC One M8 running 4.4.4?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] PanzerIV88:
Hi! I need some help, I want to make a full backup of my Nexus 4 so I can then try to recover files that were there before the factory reset that I accidentaly done. However when I try to make the first line code below in an admin CMD prompt, the backup takes less than a minute and is only 15.6Mb. If I do the second line, it takes a little more time but always stop/complete at 45.8Mb, not 13-16Gb! I even tryed the third line below because someone said it wouldn't work in the root directory, but it does the same thing, creates a folder and puts a 45.8Mb file inside of it. Why isn't it going further than that??? :(

adb backup -all -f C:\backup.ab

adb backup -apk -shared -all -f C:\backup.ab

adb backup -apk -shared -all -f /backup/backup.ab
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] fvisagie:
For the most complete backup specification, also include '-obb' for apk expansions, i.e. in your case:

adb backup -apk -obb -shared -all -f /backup/backup.ab

However, I've found that in its current state adb cannot be relied upon to create a complete backup. It either lacks functionality, or expanded documentation to include subtleties currently not covered. The two main problems I've come across so far is that with '-shared' the backup often does not complete (or does not include all data), and even with '-apk -obb -all -system' it usually doesn't back up all applications.

I've stopped using it and am now evaluating other options like ClockworkMod's NAND backup.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] PanzerIV88:
Thanks for the info, but just wondering before I start experimenting stuff that's gonna take me houres to understand and correctly do, as I may do it for totaly nothing... what's the point of doing a backup of the phone, to your computer?

I mean, does it back-up

ONLY

the actual data on the phone that is there AFTER you've done a factory reset, or it will also backup pictures that were previously there, then restore those as well when you're gonna make a "Restore" from the backup you did earlier on ur computer? If it cannot recover any pictures I had before then it's just pointless to me :rolleyes:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] fvisagie:
'-shared' supposedly backs up all user data. (Pictures taken previously might not survive a factory reset on the phone ;).)

If you want to work with different points in time, 'adb sync' may be of some use.

If it's only user data that you're interested in, I've found the 'adb pull' command to be more reliable than 'adb backup -shared', e.g.

adb pull -p -a /sdcard/ sdcard
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] HJESUS:
My question is i have two tabs here with me, already do several times the backup from one device and restore in another device, but i see at least three apps doesn´t appears on the second tab that i have made de restore....

Someone can help me out with this problema....

My device isnt rooted...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Mostafa devo:
Does this method works with Htc Desire 816 android v 5.0.2 lollipop and unlocked bootloader ??
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] someone755:
I don't see why you couldn't try, you've got nothing to lose...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Mostafa devo:
i did it, But

the file kept getting bigger and bigger don't know why it exceeded 4.5Giga, and on my phone it was saying "shared storage" until it disappeared

so i pressed the home button (and i think the process stopped) however on the prompt command it didn't say anything

so i don't know if the file is good or bad?![
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] someone755:
Let the process run, but have the screen turned on at all times (set the screen off delay to as much as you can).

The size of the backup will grow according to what you've chosen to backup -- if you've chosen app+app data to be backed up, the size of the backup will be about as much as the "Storage" section in Settings shows for "Installed Apps".

Set the right flags before you start it -- backing up apps, system apps and internal storage can end with a huge file (often over 10GB). I recommend you only backup apps + app data, but delete apps you don't want in your backup from your phone before starting the backup (things such as system app updates, like Chrome or G+ for example, can be huge memory hogs; delete their updates if you want to save space!).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Mostafa devo:
Thanks for the reply.

the code i typed was: adb backup -apk -shared -all -obb -f C:\backup.ab

what i just want is to do a backup similar to the one cwm recovery do so if i put a custom rom and wanted to go back i go back to the exact same system. so what is the exact code should i type.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] mmortal03:
Does anyone have the exact command arguments from the OP that correspond with the buttons in Holo Backup? One can infer a lot of what they might be, but some of them are a bit ambiguous.

The buttons are:

"Backup all without system apps"

"Backup all with system apps (unsafe)"

"Backup app data and device data"

"Backup apps"

"Backup storage / SD card"
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] HJESUS:
Help me....

Hy everyone...

someone can help me out with this question, i have two Galaxy Tabs 4 for customers and i want to give them the tabs with my apps and my data, my idea is give them a possible to install their apps, take pictures, all things they want, but when i receive the tabs i want to restore my first backup like the first time.

The procedure is, first do a full backup from the Tab, who has my applications, data and other things when I get the tab from the customer , I want to restore and give to another customer , the same as I gave each other customer.

I already try this procedure with adb (adb backup -apk -system ...) , and it works fine until a moment, the problems i had are:

- When i restore the backup for another tab, the old data stays in Tab (like account of Google play), and i want all personal data from the customer cleared.

- Until 6 apps from 20 apps i have in tab dont come in the backup, and i want all apps in the backup.

My question is, there is a possible to do a full backup without root??

Or there is a possible even making my tab rooted , to do a full backup without those two problems mentioned ??

I need help, because i´m searching about two weeks and i dont found nothing at all, i see here a lot of people and works perfectly with abd and root.