yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bwcorvus:
Open it up and see if its image...sorry all my recoveries use images.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
I guess it depends on the recovery version you use. I remember older versions actually had .img files. However 5.5.0.4 and Touch 5.8.0.2 both have ext4.tar files.

Which version of recovery do you use?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Immix:
If you have root, you can restore your data partition using Titanium Backup. Use "Export from Nandroid Backup" within TB, select the nandroid backup and then select all apps that you want to restore
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Interesting...will this include settings as well like my home screen icon/widget layout, wallpaper, etc?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Immix:
Yes. Titanium Backup can restore all your system apps as well as downloaded apps from a nandroid backup. Not as clean as a nandroid restore from CWM but essentially the same thing. But try to see if Titanium Backup can extract your nandroid backup. It all depends on what exactly went wrong with your nandroid backup to begin with. I don't think it restores cache. So not sure about wallpaper.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
You're right. This works great for restore data to select apps (got my notes and game saves back). I think the icon layout is held in the launcher settings, I'm about to try and restore the data to the launcher app and see what happens. I'm making a CWM backup of first of my current state (that's assuming this backup will actually work).

EDIT: Yes! That did it! Widgets position weren't saved but it's ok I only had a few so I manually put them back. Thank you! I never knew TB had the ability to work with nandroid backups.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
I guess this now just leaves me figuring out what went wrong with the CWM backup. It happened twice (I have two backups from the same day that won't restore). Does anyone else use CWM Touch 5.8.0.2 and have successful backups? I would experiment to see if it works now but I don't want to end up with a corrupt backup and redo everything again.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] teobh:
Yes with me its the same thing my data its corrupt is even worse every time I do a nanobackup and restarted my phone the phone freezes on the boot logo and I have to go back to recovery trying to use my backups but I can't so I have to flash a new from again and start from the beginning again!!!! Anybody here has the same experience with that ???
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
So AGAIN, I'm having the same issue. This time on a recovery 5.5.0.4 that used to work for me when I originally got my phone. I think either my data partition might be too big or something but this really needs to fixed pronto. Anyone know how to contact Koush directly in regards to this matter?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] cstone1819:
Same problem here

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1507488

I will say same thing what i said there, copy your nandroid backup(s) to PC, fix your phone with stock image, put back your backup(s) on your phone and they will work fine.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
I tried this already. Completely wiped the phone with stock image. Then just flashed CWM. Put the backup back on my /sdcard partition and tried to restore it. Data partition keeps failing to restore just like before.

I know I can restore my phone to working condition with the stock images but the most important thing for me is that I am able to restore my /data partition since I have saves of all my apps and instead of having to reinstall each one manually and then restore the data from each one I can bulk restore with CWM. I have about 260 apps so you can imagine the process of manually getting my phone back to the way it was.

I need to find a way to be able to backup and restore my entire /data partition in case CWM method keeps failing. Or someone really needs to get on fixing this.

If anyone at all, has any further input on this issue please comment anything you like. I want to bring this thread under attention and I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing this.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Bumping for more exposure
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Bump

Anyone else have this issue? I have a theory why it's happening but I'm trying to get a collective to see how common this is.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] claytonjn:
This has happened on both my ThinkPad Tablet and my Galaxy Nexus. I think it's due to an app I have on both devices. If I make a nandroid after a fresh install they will work fine, but if I make one after a few weeks they will often not work. This happened on both honeycomb and ICS on my TPT, and on ICS on my gnex. I always make nandroids when booted in recovery, not from rom manager or the like.

-Posted from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Wow, if you can figure out what app this is you will be a lifesaver! I have absolutely no faith in CWM and no backup solution until we can figure this out.

I had a theory there is a bug with CWM if the data partition is too big mine is over 2GB (200+ apps installed). I guarantee you one of those apps is the one you're referring to. This was not an issue within a few weeks after getting the phone but then one day...

Let's see if we can figure out this app.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] claytonjn:
Unfortunately I have 350+ apps, and I doubt I'll find the time to go through and test for one causing a problem...maybe if we watch what file it's restoring right before it reports the failure?

-Posted from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] zeke1988:
i also had this problem. dont know how to fix it. does your phone fully charged when doing the restore?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Ahh so my theory could still hold true. Too big data partition? Yours is probably around 3GB~ my guess.

Couple of things could be the issue:

1. Specific app

2. Data partition over a certain size

3. Having an app that is bigger than a certain size (ex. big games with 500MB+ data)

There are just so many variables. I even tried contacting Koush about this but no reply for months now.

It works if I wipe my device and with a few apps make a backup and then restore. And yes fully charged.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] throwbot:
I've had this happen to me as well, but couldn't get passed a boot loop. I received the same error when restoring my backup- all of my backups. I had five or six at the time and they were all receiving the same error. Had to fast boot back to stock.

.•°I love my little girl, Bella°•.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] FredFS456:
Maybe you guys can share what apps you have installed? Then (if it's an app) we could narrow it down to what you have in common and look specifically at the suspicious apps.

I've been using CWM to flash between my daily driver (AOKP) and experimental/nightly roms, so I would really like to find out what's causing this backup failiure to make sure it doesn't happen to me.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] loveubuntu:
260 apps? I'm amazed. How about using the paid version of tit backup to automate the restore phase.?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Anyone know how to export the list of apps installed to text? This way I can post here.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
That's what I've been using (and Appextracter) but unfortunately this is a very time consuming and poor workaround (some things don't restore correctly).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Found the exact app we need to export our list :)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.aTrackDog&hl=en
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Here is my app list:

Anyone who has the same issue as in OP please see if your apps match any of these? Maybe together we can figure this out. :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Bumping
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] claytonjn:
The following are the apps we both have installed, same version and everything:

The following we both have installed, but different versions:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Hmmm...I wonder if Google Wallet has something to do with this? It is a pretty special app (what with the security layer and all).

Anyone interested in experimenting? (Unfortunately I cannot risk my data/time-to-restore at the moment).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] claytonjn:
I was upgrading to AOKP B33 so I was doing a data wipe anyways and tested google wallet. made a nandroid, uninstalled google wallet and made another nandroid. Tried installing the first nandroid...no go. Tried the second, still no go. So Google Wallet isn't the culprit.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] FredFS456:
This is the list of apps that you guys have but I do not have (I don't have the restoring problem). I deleted ATrackDog because I figured it probably wasn't causing the problem, since you had the problem without it too.

These are apps that you guys have of different versions (deleted Wallet, since already tested)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] molesarecoming:
craps, happened to me aswell after trying to install aokp 33 an hour ago. none of my backups work anymore. i just recently used one of them to revert to 31 since 32 had some bugs i couldn't live with and it went through fine. what the heck happened there! :confused:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
So just to confirm. You tested this on a fresh AOKP build without restoring all your other personal data and still doesn't restore?

I ask this because I'm trying to find a reason to rule out the theory of 2GB+ data partitions not able to be restored (my initial theory).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] claytonjn:
No, I made the nandroids before messing with the rom at all...so it was still the full data partition.

-Posted from my Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] phillevy:
This just happened to me as well with my Nexus S - both nandroids wont restore and give the data restore error. Never had anything like this before.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] molesarecoming:
me neither. i tried everything to get around it but my backups were suddenly wasted. had to flash it to stock again to make it work.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] phillevy:
I wiped and reflashed my most recent CM ROM, but I have lost confidence doing anything else now without the security of being able to restore a backup. I hope this can be solved. Has anyyone tried to restore a clean "app-free" backup?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
I see. In this case, if you have no issues backing up and restoring on a fresh ROM, I am afraid that my theory of "too big" data partition may be holding true. From comparing all our apps, I can't seem to see why any of the similar apps we have would cause an issue.

Now the interesting question is to figure out at least where the size limit is before restores start failing. Unfortunately, this is a very time consuming process. But if anyone ever has some free time and interested in installing some apps (1GB data) then backing up and restoring, installing some more (1.25GB data) and the same, then 1.5GB, 1.75GB, 2GB, and 2.25GB, etc... until the restores start failing, maybe we can figure out what the limit is.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] claytonjn:
I don't think I mentioned this before, but I'm having the same problem getting an error restoring /data on my ThinkPad Tablet as well...

-Posted from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] wgabler:
I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and bump this up.

I've got a CDMA/VZW Nexus, unlocked on day 1, but had otherwise been totally stock. Decided to root last night and try the Paranoid Android ROM. I did a nandroid backup through CWM prior to flashing Paranoid Android. I received an error when trying to flash the ROM, but figured no big deal, since I had the nandroid. I made the back up via CWM Touch but was not able to restore via Touch or non-Touch CWM. Received the same "Error while restoring /data!" message.

I salvaged that partial restore by selectively extracting app data from the nandroid via Titanium BackUp. I've had to re-install virtually every app, but at least the data has been able to be successfully restored for about 95% of them.

I've been using CWM and flashing ROMs for a while with no issues, so I'm confident it wasn't operator error on my end. To those asking about apps: I had about 95 installed.

To those of you that flashed back via stock images, were you then able to properly restore via CWM without error?

Hoping someone can find a solution so I/we can get back to checking out new ROMs w/ confidence in my backups.

thanks!!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
I think I have figured out the answer to this one. The .tar file is too large for the tar utility to deal with. It returns with the error "Value too large for defined data type." Which basically means that whoever compiled the tar utility that is in use did not turn on the large file support when they built it.

http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/coreutils-faq.html#Value-too-large-for-defined-data-type

I am going to extract the file on my linux box and create two smaller files and then put them back manually and cross my fingers.

UPDATE: Instead I opened the giant .tar file with 7zip, extracted (copied) and then deleted a few huge game apk files (17 files = 800+ MB). Then pushed the file back to the sd card with adb. Then wiped the data partition (format DATA) then extracted the now smaller tar file (tar xf /path/to/file.ext4.tar -C /) and then pushed the missing apk files back to their correct home and now I'm crossing my fingers!

Now someone tell someone else that either tar needs to be recompiled to support larger files (e.g. 64 bit) or the nandroid people (you know who you are) need to use the split command so that files aren't so large.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
I had a feeling this might have been the issue. So is Koush at fault here for not enabling large file support on his built-in tar utility in CWM? Any idea what that size limit is exactly?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
Large files are defined as anything larger than a signed 32-bit integer, or stated differently, larger than 2GB.

I don't know if Koush uses his own tar utility or if he is using something that is already in the system. Either way he should be able to break up large files so that this doesn't happen.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
I tried to contact this guy but I have no idea what is the best way to reach him because I haven't heard a reply from him at all. I tried e-mailing him to his paypal address. Anyone here know a good way to contact Koush?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
Eureka! [SOLVED]

UPDATE 2:

This is a bit hacky, but it is all I have left.

So I took the new data.ext4.tar file from before and I calculated a new md5sum for it.

Then I edited the nandroid.md5 file to have the NEW value for data.ext4.tar.

Then I copied the entire clockwork backup directory to a new one called copy.

Then I put the new nandroid.md5 file and the new data.ext4.tar file in the copy directory.

Then I performed a normal recovery in CWM using the copy backup.

That did it! Full (almost) recovery. Just missing the apk files for a few huge games and I should be able to pop those back in pretty easily.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Any idea if the error is happening at backup point or restore point?

Like is it still making a successful backup but just not able to deal with restoring it?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
Yes the problem is with the restore not the backup. Backup is fully intact, just ends up being too large to extract.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Know of any Windows-based tar utility that maybe we can use to restore directly from PC to phone bypassing CWM entirely?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
I may be wrong but I don't think that is possible unless it is using adb.

To be clear the problem isn't only with CWM. I tried to extract the file on my linux server and saw the same error message.

---------- Post added at 03:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 PM ----------

FYI my phone came all the way back up and I was able to use Root Explorer to move the missing .apk files back over to /data/app, reboot and now it is completely back to normal.

I am now wondering if TWRP has this problem. I may flash and find out now that I know how to get back to this point. I don't think that they use tar files so it may be a solution.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Okaay:
Just start stock, this happened to me but I couldnt even wipe at all. I just flashed stock and rooted and the got aokp and Franco and I'm glad I did it. I'm getting like 4-5 hours screen time with 18-25 he battery

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Guys if anyone who has this issue with CWM and is willing to experiment for us please post here.

I'd like someone to try this new recovery and see if they have the same issue for them or not.

gimpyestrada perhaps you'd be willing?

Here are the download links below:

CDMA Edition (Verizon)

GSM Edition

Please confirm the following:

1. Your data partition is bigger than 2GB

2. You can successfully backup and restore at least data partition
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
I'll do it, but I'm gonna wait until after I leave work today. It really sucked being without my phone yesterday.

I've already installed that version of TWRP and was planning to try it out anyway.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Thanks man. This would be a great help, and trust me I know how it feels. :/
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Any luck gimpyestrada?

I'm itching and hoping to see if this new recovery works right or not as there isn't a solid simple backup solution I can trust right now.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
Bad news. TWRP doesn't work either. Now I'm gonna have to figure out how to coax its backups to work as well. Hopefully it will be something similar to what I did with CWM.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
-_-
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
I have confirmed that TWRP uses tar to package the files. They have exactly the same problem. They need to enable support for larger files or break the archive up into smaller file sizes.

Luckily I can recover from this (pain in the ass though it is). Unfortunately we don't have a viable option for restoring backups of our beloved phones.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Someone needs to make Koush and the rest of the developers aware of this issue or this may be an issue for our future phones as well. I wish there was a way to contact this guy.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] kevinjgray88:
Are you by chance renaming your backup with spaces in it
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
I have sent messages to both clockworkmod's support page and the TWRP general contact page informing them of the problem and pointing them to this thread. Hopefully they can figure out a work around.

I do not believe that this issue is going to be unique to this phone. I believe any phone that has lots of stuff on it will have this problem when the /data partition's backup file is greater than 2GB.

I am not certain where the tar command lives on the android system. Perhaps it would be a simple matter of updating the tar command. Perhaps the recovery guys can use their own bundled tar commands. Or they could just break up the files into smaller chunks.

---------- Post added at 12:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 AM ----------

Nope, this is a limitation of the tar program that is being used to extract the backup files. It cannot go beyond a 2GB file size unless it is compiled a certain way.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
I contacted them as well. This doesn't seem to be any ordinary issue to a specific device I think. I am hoping someone from either team will be kind enough to take a glance at this for us.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
Not sure why no one has noticed this before but hopefully if we can get someone to take notice the problem shouldn't be too hard to solve. I'm thinking of grabbing the TWRP git repo and taking a look myself.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Jubakuba:
I have the same problem guys.

http://rootzwiki.com/topic/25089-help-error-restoring-data-cwmcwmtouch/

DMac thinks it's a nand issue.

I'm hesitant to believe it.

But anyway, ya...before posting that thread I obviously did quite a bit of homework.

I've not found a fix.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Dees_Troy:
The root cause of this issue could be a number of different things. It's possible that the kernel doesn't allow for files larger than 2GB (even though the file system can). It might be an issue with tar which then means that it's a busybox issue because we get tar from busybox. Can someone try copying and large file to their device? Either way there are some options for breaking the tar file into multiple smaller files.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Dees_Troy, thanks so much for taking your time to take a look at this issue. I have no problems moving various 2GB+ files (movies, CWM backups, etc...) to/from my device both ways, via MTP or ADB push/pull.

Also here's something someone else posted in the TWRP thread:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
I copied the file off of the phone to my Linux box. I tried to un-tar the file with my default, 32-bit tar utility and it failed. I opened the exact same file using 7zip and it worked fine.

The file is not corrupt, the file is fine.

It is not unique to my phone or my kernel or to Android. It is a problem with the tar utility across Linux.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Dees_Troy:
Busybox has an option called CONFIGURE_LFS for enabling large file support. Unfortunately there's an issue with bionic (the primary source code for compiling anything based on C/C++ for Android) that prevents large file support from working properly so the only real option at this point is to break the archive into multiple smaller pieces (or possibly try to fix bionic). It's still somewhat ideal to break into smaller files anyway due to FAT32-based sdcards not being able to handle large files either.

TWRP, however, does support compression and enabling compression might help you keep the tar archive under the 2GB limit until I can piece something together.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Jubakuba:
Brilliant, sir.

I commend you on trying.

I had tried TWRP...but didn't use the compression option.

I could try that whenever the next AOKP is out (I don't want to make YET ANOTHER failed backup just to test...and have to go through the labor of setting up again...and mine is very specific. Takes more time than many, I'm afraid).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
Dees_Troy, excellent job on going deeper into this discovery. I'm hoping you will be able to come up with some kind of method of breaking up the tars (every 500MB perhaps?).

gimpyestrada, do you want to try another backup/restore with the compression option enabled this time? I'm curious if this actually works.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] claytonjn:
I might give it a try before flashing build 35

-Posted from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gimpyestrada:
Not particularly. I think that most of the files that we are dealing with are pretty well compressed already. Compression may save a couple of hundred megs but my backup size is 2.6GB and I don't think that compression will get it down that low.

Even if it works it is still not a solution. I will run a backup just to see how small compression can get it though...maybe I'm wrong.

P.S. Damn TWRP is fast! Restoring and backing up is really really fast.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] claytonjn:
My data partition is 2.1 something, so the compressed backup in TWRP worked! I'm liking it way more than CWM, I'm definitely sticking with TWRP from now on...wish I tried it sooner.

-Posted from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] open1your1eyes0:
2.1GB was before compressed? What was it after? Can you confirm being about to restore it as well (this is the key issue here)?