yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cyanide911:
I used the Helium backup app to backup all my apps before flashing my S3 with the stock ROM. I copied my entire internal memory as it is, and pasted it after flashing. This of course included the crucial 'Carbon' folder with all my backups made my Helium.

BUT now I installed helium and it refuses to detect those backups. In 'Restore and Sync' it simply says "No backups were found on your internal storage".

I know this is probably best asked to the Helium developer but I reckon it's a very famous app so someone might be able to suggest a solution here. I've already tried rebooting.

Thanks!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dragonsoul84:
Had the same problem, wanted to root my phone, but unlocking the bootloader wipes everything, so used Helium to backup all my apps. Backed up to both internal storage and dropbox, copied "carbon" folder from internal storage to computer, unlocked bootloader, copied back, and helium wouldn't see backups from "carbon" folder. Will, however, find backups from dropbox, but without premium version, cannot restore them.

I did find a workaround, but it is not the most pleasant way of doing things. If you open the menu options and tap PC Download, it will display a local ip address and port (i.e. http://192.168.1.xxx:5000 or 10.1.10.xxx:5000). This is your phones ip address on your network and may appear different depending on your router and/or network setup, and the 5000 is the port to access helium web server on phone. Navigate to that ip address through your web browser, including http:// and it will open a web interface for backing up and restoring. See attached screenshot. Click on the browse button under Restore and navigate to the carbon folder that you backed up. In each folder will be 3 files, xxx.png, xxx.ab, and .nomedia (xxx is the name of the file i.e. com.adobe.reader). Choose the file with .ab and click open. The web interface will ask if you want to restore, click yes. Repeat for all items to be restored. If the web interface says file invalid, make sure the server is still running on your phone. Should show a cloud in the notification bar and say Helium server is running. If the server stops, just restart it from menu->pc download in the helium app.

This is not the most elegant or efficient way of doing this, but if all your data is in those backups and you really want them, this is the only solution I have found so far. I hope this helps.

Edit: Was able to restore first two apps before posting, but after continuing, remaining apps would not restore. May still work, but even though I get restore complete, the apps don't show up. Will require further investigation.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gierso:
kind of solution :)

i have the same problem i tried to unlock nexus 10 and made a backup and (manualy) copied the carbon folder to my PC and restored after unlocking

and as you know it wont detect the backups..

i think it has to do with a .json file that is either not created when the backup is done or not carried over the copy.

(i know about this .json file, as i had a previous backup from whatsapp which had this txt file which has info about the backup)

so when i tried to restore all my apps i only got that whatsapp detected (as an old version)

i mailed Koush( the developer) and he said that manual moving is not supported and the way to go is using the IP server to extract the backups to PC.. (ie doing the backups with the Web tool and not in the app itself)

one thing i can think of (cheating the app. installing the app, doing a backup of the app and replacing the .ab file for the one in the lost backup.. ) i will try that :) and post back

---------- Post added at 03:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:13 PM ----------

ok i had an old PLUME (twitter client) backup with data,

what i did and seemed to work (for this test )

is to delete data on installed PLUME

backup plume without data. (a plume folder gets created on the carbon folder)

replaced the .ab from this backup with the old backup's .ab

now helium restored the old file with the previous backup data restored as well

i hope this works for other apps. i will try with my nimble quest game which i have a backup and is the only thing no recoverable i had in helium everything else is account based on the cloud

so the way to go here could (until koush changes this)

install the affected apps

backup them

navigate to the carbon folder and replace the .ab's with the old counterparts (which have data)

enjoy
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cn69tw:
I also had same problem, and i try use the solution below, but it can NOT work for me.

My device is ASUS Padfone 2, without root.

After try many method, I success finally!!

Here is my step, hope can help other people like me:

1. check the backup folder name. i.e jp.co.johospace.jorte, copy it to your PC.

2. use google search this key word "jp.co.johospace.jorte", you can find out what is this app, download and install it from play store.

3. After install finished, open your Helium and backup this app, i.e. "jorte"

4. After backup finished, check Helium restore, you can see "jorte" was backuped.

5. close Heilum from setting/apps, then open file explorer, find a folder named "jp.co.johospace.jorte" in the ../sdcard/carbon/

6. open the folder, you can see 3 files: 1.._jp.co.johospace.jorte.png 2..nomedia 3..jp.co.johospace.jorte.ab

copy jp.co.johospace.jorte.ab from your PC to android /sdcard/carbon/jp.co.johospace.jorte and replace it

7. open Helium again, and restore jorte, you can see data was restored!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] svyr:
it's probably possible to generate a set of manifests for it. the json ones don't seem to have any special data (as in no binary or signature type things)

e.g. for Lux the app

{"enabled":true,"system":false,"flags":545832516,"packageName":"com.vito.lux","versionCode":158,"label":"Lux","versionName":"1.58","locked":false,"date":1375397585745,"apk":true,"backup":true}

cut down to

{"enabled":true,"packageName":"com.vito.lux","label":"Lux","locked":false,"date":1375398819080,"apk":true,"backup":true}

still restores ok

I'm not sure how much metadata is necessary for it to work but that still restores (and the date is moot anyway).

It's possible if you mess up the enabled or system attributes or if the flags attributes are useful hints to the restore command to set package properties - it may make you have to wipe your device (or replace a newer version of the app or install data for an older version, etc). but for your everyday apps for a recent backup - you could probably make a quick powershell or whatever script to iterate over a set of subfolders and generate some dummy manifests.

$subfolders = Get-Item -Path 'E:\carbon\*'

foreach ($f in $subfolders){
if($f.Attributes.ToString() -eq "Directory")
{
$filecont="{`"enabled`":true,`"packageName`":`""+$f.name+"`",`"label`":`"" + $f.Name + "`",`"locked`":false,`"date`":1375398819080,`"apk`":true,`"backup`":true}"
$fname= $f.FullName + "\" + $f.Name + ".json"
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllText($fname, $filecont)
}
}

(I'd probably suggest using the manifests from backup restores for google system apps and contacts/sms/launcher, etc instead of these though)

anyway, wish the dev added clear non skippable instructions to the app (first run), and the desktop dl page

Maybe they're there and im stupid.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ginhead:
thanks for this workaround. this feels like a huge gap in the functionality of a backup app. if there is a forced need to use the cloud, the user should at least be made aware of it.

not sure how much I can legitimately complain about a free app, but definitely not interested in the premium version based on this.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinnu189:
It's simple !

I found out a way. What you do is, 1st backup all your apps using Carbon to your Internal or External storage. Copy all the files in the carbon folder where you have backed up your data. Once you finish wiping your data, install all the apps again and backup using carbon. Now,replace these backup files with the actual backups ! Since you have backed up after re-installing your ROM , carbon won't say it couldn't find any backups. ;)

Cheers

- Sent from Galaxy S3
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chinnu189:
No idea, what I posted worked for me !
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bfettd:
SMS not returning?

Everything else seemed to work (thanks for this solution, definitely helpful to at least confirm data). Anyways - the one thing I can't seem to figure out is how to restore text messages (com.android.providers.telephony.ab) - I've tried to do it as a whole app using the PC interface, tried copying the folder as a replacement via Android File Transfer to the 'carbon' folder, etc.

When I try to restore via helium server, it quickly shows me everything as restored but I don't see the messages. When I try to do it manually (e.g. force copy), I don't see an option under "Restore and Sync" to actually select messaging.

Am I missing something stupid / obvious? The raw data seems to be there (for example, call logs were uploaded just fine, text messages seem to have an issue).

--Dan
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bfettd:
So I came up with a solution based on what works for others. Why this works when it didn't previously is beyond me, but hopefully someone else can use it if individual parts of their Helium backup don't work properly (in theory it should work for any app / SQL dataset). The whole point of Helium is that we're running non-rooted phones and so Titanium Backup or the like aren't applicable. For reference, I'm running an N4 to OSX 10.7.x

1. Use the Helium Server to create a full backup.

2. Wipe phone or whatever you need to do (I had to do a factory reset for Google since it's an N4 and my proximity sensor is dead).

3. Install the apps you had previously via Play Store (pain in the a**).

4. Run Helium server and upload the backup data.

5. Update apps as needed (should be auto but who knows for individual stuff).

6. Check app data in apps. Texts are obviously easy to see for me. Hopefully everything restored nicely for you here.

***Now for the bit for people who got corrupted restores.

7. Unzip the backup file on your computer, select the .ab files that correspond to the missing / corrupted restores and then zip those into a new file on your computer (for step 9). Keep these files handy in unzipped form as well for step 10.

8. Perform a new Helium backup of those sections onto the internal SD card (yes it will be blank, worry not).

9. (Optional step): Run Helium server and upload that new zip file (with the stuff that didn't make it) alone. Try restore. Unlikely to work but worth a shot.

10. Running Android File Transfer, find the SD card, find the folder 'carbon' and then find the corresponding sub-folders that have the modules that were corrupted. Replace the SD card backups of the broken modules with the good ones from your computer.

11. Run Helium restore again, but only for the sections you want (I swear, for me Messaging didn't show up the first few times but after step 10 it did).

12. Wait, hoepfully it works well. I would reboot after running the restore to a) kill Helium and b) confirm functionality.

FWIW, my telephony.ab was 1.8MB and took SIX hours to restore. Seriously. Yeah yeah, that's a lot of texts but six hours? I've since added "SMS Backup & Restore" to my phone and will probably just use that, map out my phone layout and functionality and just manually replace apps from now on since most data is in the cloud. You lose some stuff, but prima facie it's boat tons easier.

Hopefully that helps someone else who had the same issues.

Best,

--Dan
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] blade_:
app is just crap

i lose the most important data.some apps restored,but not the precious i wanted.

thanks helium
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] digitallysick:
Garbage app, just installed it, backed up then when i tried to restore i get the same errors all because i copied the carbon folder to my pc. Stupid
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] PetritH:
Yeah.. I wanted to give a try.. but its real garbage.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] timoe14:
thanks chinnu189

your solution worked great for me and only took 2 minutes. messages were restored too. now i can finish Final Fantasy :victory:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bellroid:
It worked for me - JUST BUY THE GOD DAMNED APP

Yes its $5.00 but you know what, I bet you've spent that on a burger, fries and drink in the past month.

I spent an hour trying to do it the free way, made a backup to internal, made a backup to pc using the server, yadda yadda yadda, then ended up on here looking for help because it wasn't working properly.

Finally went fck it here's my five bucks and I backed up to the cloud and restored from the cloud. It just works as advertised and perfectly at that.

Even in high school my time was worth $5 an hour. I just wasn't ready to acknowledge it then. Trust me, it's worth every cent. Buy Helium Premium.

</Advertisement>

No seriously I am a long time Titanium Pro user and Helium allowed me to move my nexus 4 data to my nexus 5 without having to go through the hassles of root. Well worth it for that alone.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] loki980:
Ok, hope this helps somebody. Just did the whole copy the folder instead of use the webserver business. I tried the replace methods above to no avail.

What did work is backing up ONE app to internal and replacing the *.ab file with the backup data into the 'carbon' folder, overwriting the one that has basically a blank app.

If I tried to restore multiple apps at the same time, it didn't work.

This is on a nexus 5, by the way. Now on to the rest of my apps...
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] svyr:
the webserver method is a) slow b) keeps dropping out. the app is nothing but a headache.

as for the cloud backup one - depends on the service and whether you can specify the file to be encrypted prior to the transfer.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jtdc:
when doing backups using PC download mode (thru the URL port 5000), the device must be in standby, ie. Screen ON and UNLOCKED. its the only way the backups gets created good and can be restored.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dfs1122:
Extracting Helium ab files

I backup up using Helium, and was unable to restore, so I had a small adventure recovering my files (eventually successful). These are some brief notes.

I had used the PC option to get the backup.zip file on my PC (I was going to reflash my Nexus 7 "grouper", 8GB). However, Helium refused to re-install the 2.5GB file back to the tablet. (Wait for upload via WiFi, then "failed".)

I could extract the particular 1.8GB ab file I wanted from the backup-zip that Helium made. However, "adb restore ..." would not work either.

After searching on "adb extractor" I found that the perl scripts (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1730309) were able to get me an extracted file in nominal "tar" format. I say nominal, because none of the tar programs I have would touch it---bad blocks etc. (I tried the Java adb extractor first, but did not pursue it further because of the tar issues.)

It turns out that the Helium "ab-tar" file was ordered like this:

2 bytes of something.

5 bytes of something.

Tar header block.

Tar data/header blocks...

5 bytes of something (starting at location 0x10007).

Tar data/header blocks...

5 bytes of something (at location 0x1800C).

Etc.

I.e., every 0x8000-byte chunk was prefixed by 5 bytes of stuff. Except for the second chunk. And the whole file was prefixed by 2 bytes of stuff.

Not only that, but the tar header checksums had been divided by 8 (i.e., last octal digit replaced with '\0').

After converting to a regular tar file, I was able to restore the files to their place. I now have a tar-reconstructing program that I will send to anyone who requests it.

Sigh. Backup should not be this hard.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scandiun:
Helium doesn't work with some stock Samsung roms.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Littmaniac:
Restoring freezes with Helium Backup (Carbon)

Hi!

Using Helium Backup (Carbon) I've backed up some app data (only data, not the whole app) to the SD card of my old Galaxy S (rooted) and placed it on my new Asus Padfone Infinity 2 (stock, unrooted). I installed the apps I want to restore in the new phone and when I start Helium Backup I'm able to see my backups. However, when I start the restoring process it immediately freezes and doesn’t complete the restore. I've done the backup process twice to rule out a faulty backup.

What am I doing wrong?

Thx in advance and Merry Xmas to all!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scandiun:
Probably older versions of Helium are creating corrupt backups and probably that's why it freezes to you.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Littmaniac:
Is there any other app that backups data and doesn't need root?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scandiun:
Helium backups are just android adb backups that are not compressed. Read more here:

[GUIDE] How to extract, create or edit android adb backups
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scandiun:
Fresh news. Helium fails if you are on PhilZ kernel, but works on stock (with stock recovery) or on Apolo kernel, so try again and report.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MSK1:
what if you havent updated your carbon app for the latest update? I still have carbon as opposed to helium.

Will I have a problem restoring from Helium later down the line?

Should I update to Heliu and back up again?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deathhaker:
how to restore helium backup from Carbon Folder

ok now it works 100% but has its own cost i.e. it requires alot of your time...

before starting this, make sure you havent placed the carbon folder from your previous backup in your phone's memory...

starting with it, when you reinstall all of the applications which were previously installed, create a backup of them using helium. it will create a new folder named "carbon" in your phone's memory.

now connect your phone to your pc where you have placed your previous backup folder named "carbon"

now starting from each folder from each app, copy al the files from each folder and replace them with the files currently present in your phone in carbon's folder

for example...if i have backed up subway surfer's data using helium it will create a kiloo's folder in the "carbon" folder

i will copy the previously created back up files from my pc and replace them with the current files in my phone's kiloo folder present in "carbon"

after doing so for every app, go back to your phone and turn up helium, restore your backup and VOLA!

you have resotred everything you previously had

:)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MSK1:
What if you backed up app and data together? Can u still copy and paste the content from the folder after downloading apps from play store and using ur suggested method.

Ie how do I distinguish between the app and app data in my backup.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neeraj1212:
hey,it is not saying that backup not found,but it restores my meesages,when i open message app,i dont see any restored message

:silly::silly::silly::silly:

---------- Post added at 01:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:29 PM ----------

exactly same issue,messages not restoring

and when i restores subway surfers,it gives error

---------- Post added at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:49 PM ----------

how to do same with previously stored backup in phone memory????
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neeraj1212:
how to restore helium backup manually?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] surej96:
Yay!!! Your script worked :)

Your script worked..... It generated all the necessary JSON files so Helium can read the backup files :)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] A_A_M_I_R:
A Year Later

So I guess a year later Helium still has the same issues, it couldn't restore from the zip file so I backed up to internal after installing the new ROM and manually replaced the .ab files!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Osaab:
nexus 5 user

im gonna try the backup-replace method. does it make any difference if my apps were on art and now im using dalvik?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vegeto079:
Just another person saying thank you so much for this script! It worked perfectly and without a hitch. Once I put all the folders into my carbon folder it immediately recognized all the apps and I'm back to restoring. And to think I almost paid $5 just to restore my files. Cheers!!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Karish1989:
I had the same problem and this worked for me!

TNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DUDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :) :victory:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ameridane:
Help me keep playing chrono trigger please?

Hey,

So it seems I've fallen victim to this terrible app as well. I have lots of hours logged on chrono trigger (the independent app, not an emulator/rom) and it seemed as though I could back it up with helium to dropbox, to then restore my progress if I needed to factory reset. Sadly my earpiece stopped working on my M8, I backed up chrono trigger, did the reset as part of trouble shooting, then redownloaded helium, and chrono trigger, and attempted to restore the backup. It got to 14% and i got the error. Then I found this thread and attempted to create a blank backup, swap the ab files, and restore. Again, 14% and error.

Clearly the ab file is corrupt in some way if it's only getting to the same place EVERY time I try it, but I don't get the java coding that you're all using here. Can someone please either walk me through, or extract for me, the files that I need to back up my game? We're talking like 30 hours, and I ride the subway a LOT. I would really appreciate any help.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jassim007:
Your method worked. Thanks bro.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] annihilaity:
A bit of a unique problem?

Hi,

I just switched my GS4 to boot Cyanogenmod and backed up my data with Helium as I hadn't rooted my phone. I had to use the Helium server to back up my data, into an archive called backup.zip. Upon unzipping it, the only file inside was called backup.json. I tried to restore my data through Helium both using the .zip and the .json. they both said "Restore complete" but no data was restored. (The backup was app data only.) In my search of the internet for some kind of resolution for this problem, this seemed to be the only really relevant thread. I read through all the posts, and like I said, the only file in my zip was the .json, I don't have any .ab or anything. I tried restoring from my pc through the Helium server, and I've also tried transferring the file back to my phone via usb and restoring it from the Helium app via internal storage, to which I was told there were no backups found. Is there something I'm missing? Do I have to do something to the .json to get to my backup data or is this just a corrupt file that will never do me any good? I don't believe I backed up the Carbon folder, I have a folder named carbon but it's empty. (There may be hidden files, I haven't figured out how to un-hide them on CM, I've only been using it for a day.)

Thanks for any help.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] batwingnz:
Well that's the last time I don't root a phone as soon as I get it. Used my Oneplus for a couple months before deciding to root - which requires wipe. Heard heaps of recommendations for Helium.

Chose to use web interface for backup and for restore. Restore says invalid backup file. If I have to sort this out manually that's 80 apps. None of it's critical data but seriously how is this app considered usable.