[General Topics] Hannah Stern:
How to get the most complete backup, which is possible with locked bootloader and no #Root?

Hello everybody.

:)

This step-by-step Guide will show you, how to get the most complete backup from a Nexus device,if your bootloader is not unlocked.

Once, i also had some problems and confusion with this backup, but finally i understood. So i'm posting this thread for some other users, which are maybe confused.

First of all, great thanks to [MENTION=3110798]WugFresh[/MENTION] for the Nexus Root toolkit, and for the early help. ;)

This can be helpful, if you want to unlock your bootloader, but you still need to back up some important data.

With unlocked bootloader, it's quite easy to take a backup, which doesn't exclude anything. That's the Nandroid w/ Backup.

But with locked bootloader, it's a little bit (much) harder, because the nAndroid/W Backup will not be useful at all.

The problem is, that unlocking bootloader will wipe out all user data/apps/etc., which is present on the device. Locking it again will do the same. There's no way to avoid the wipe, which will make all data unrecoverable, but you can back up as much data as possible.

I recommend to unlock the bootloader, straight away after you buy any nexus device, before saving any data to it, to avoid those restrictions. It's truly worthed it.

The Factory Images of all Nexus Devices can be downloaded from this nice place here, if you want to change your Android Version manually: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images?hl=de

Google excludes all 4.4.1 or 4.2.1-Versions on the website, but other version history is included, and the download speed is very fast there.

This is, what the backup will include:

> Full User Data Storage (Without NRT)

> All APK's of Free Apps

> All Data of Free Apps

> Full Data of Paid Apps

> AndroidManifests.XML of Free/Paid/System apps

> SMS

>Call Logs

>Contacts

This is, what the backup will exclude:

APK's of Paid Apps

Data of System Apps

APK's of System Apps

Network Configuration

WiFi-Passwords and SSiD's

A Nandroid w/ Backup does actually include everything, which is on the device, nothing (except. deleted recoverable data) is excluded.

Part 1 (Without NRT) - User Data Storage

For this part, you should do following:

Make sure, your computer supports MTP. Connect your device to your Computer's USB Port.

1. Reboot your device (better to safe mode) - If your computer detects the device, jump to step 4.

2. After Reboot, drop the drop-down-menu by swiping down from the upper screen.

2.1 Go to the USB-Connection-Notification and tap it.

3. If MTP-Connection is not enable, enable it

4. You're now viewing the Internal Storage of the Drive with the File Explorer of Windows.

4.1 Now press STRG+A.

4.2 Now copy or move the data to your desired destiantion (On Android 4.4.2, never move the data from the device, because that can Trigger a full data loss of the internal user storage, due to a software bug. Better →copy→delete.)

4.3 If you've got many files, and the Progress Bar is stuck at zero, wait around up to thirty minutes and see what happened. In those thirty minutes, Windows counts the files and calculates the - this is needed for MTP. Too Bad :( ;(

4.3.1 If something happened in those thirty minutes, (progress bar) simply wait until the end.

4.3.2 If nothing happened, try not to copy/move all file at once.

5. Make sure, that every desired file is in the output folder. (4.4.2 Software bug might exclude newer files.)

6. Go to [Part 2], to backup the apps with their data.

Part 2 with NRT - Apps, Application Data, AndroidManifest etc.

You have to connect your device to the computer with a MicroUSB-Cable. The length of the cable is not important, but please make sure, that it's attached properly.

Installing the program is possible, without your nexus device itself, but you'll need it.

[Part 2.0 - Preparation and Installation of NRT]

First [i forgot, what i wanted to write here. Will be added by edit, please excuse me :eek:]

You can download the lastest version of NRT right

here

(Currently, it's 2.0.5, while this text was written)

It's an offline (standalone) installer, so that the Installer does not require any Internet connection to install NRT, if the download of the installer finished. It will not download additional files and it's also free of adware.

Optionally, you can set the installation directory manually.

[Part 2.1 - After Installation]

After finishing the Installation, you will have to open the toolkit. Possibly it will ask you, which device model + Android Version you have got. Auto-Detection only works, if your device is attached to the computer properly.

Probably, a message will show up, which wants you to download the following three things:

→Modified Boot.img

→TWRP (Team win Recovery Project) Recovery

→@ChainFire SuperSU (Currently v2.4.6)

So you have to click on „Download + Update all file dependencies"

After the NRT has downloaded a few files, it will automaticly go to the GUI's Main Page with it's LiveLog.

[Part 2.1.1 - Google Driver Installation]

For this Step, you have to click the big button in the main GUI Page, in the area "Initial Setup", in the upper right corner.

As far, as i know myself, it's recommended to install the Google Drivers. The name "universal drivers" sounds attractive, but i did not test, whether it works, but i think, it does also work fine. But there's also a big number for „Recommended Solution". In my case, the tool recommended me [#1].

[2.2 - GUi]

Now, it will ask you, to enable the USB-Debugging. NRT will tell you, how to do it:

1. Go to the Settings Menu.

1.1 Go to the System Information

1.2 Tap the Build Number (e.g. KOT49H for Android 4.4.2) seven times, to enable the developer options. You can also tap it more than seven times, but this will not have any effect.

2. Open the Developer-Settings.

3. Enable „USB-Debugging"

3.1 If needed, you can confirm to allow your computer. The RSA-Fingerprint of your computer will be displayed.

3.2 For sure, also go to the USB-Connection settings (through the Drop-Down menu or the setting menu), and uncheck MTP or PTP or whatever (everything, which is present.)

You're now on the Main Page of the GUI.

On the left, there's an Area, which is called: „Backup + Restore“.

There are two buttons labeled [Backup] and [Restore].

[Restore] is for restoration purposes, so click on [Backup].

[2.3 - App Backup]

On the area „Backup all Apps", you see 2 tickboxes.

Please do not tick the first one, because the first one would require an unlocked bootloader. If you do, the program would fail

[ ]	System apps+data

[✓]	Shared Data​

After that, just go and click on [Create Android Backup File], which will create an *.ab File. (not *.adb) Later, you can restore the data from the AB file, whenever you want.

After you clicked this button, a window with some relevant information will show up. Please take your time and read it. It can be pretty useful.

Please don't forget to turn Airplane Mode on. I personally recommend being in Safe Mode. (The computer can run normally, but the device should be in fresh safe mode without opening any app.)

After you click on [OK], the program will ask you, where you want to save the .ab-file, and what the filename should be.

The Standard is „MM-DD-YYYY_HH-MM.ab" - I personally use YYYYMMDDHHMMSS, the Timestamp, which is known from the Wayback Machine.

After that, the Toolkit will try to reboot your device. But then it will not boot into safe mode. So please click [save] at the moment, when the device is already rebooting into safe mode.

Make sure, that your Computer's RSA-Key(Fingerprint) is automaticly accepted by the debug mode. The Toolkit will only wait five minutes for the device. If the waiting time has expired without success, an error message will show up. It says: „Notification: Waiting for device operation timed out. [...]"

If your device can't be detected, read the information in the timeout-window. It's worth reading it and will maybe solve your problem.

If your device is detected properly, your device should disply a confirmation message all over the screen. Try confirming fast, otherways NRT will timeout.

But if you want, you can lock it with a password, which you'll need, if you want to read/restore from the backup anytime later on. Please take care about case-sensitivity and to avoid additional problems, it's not recommended to use those emoticons on the KitKat-Keyboard.

Now, the backup starts.

While NRT is indicating, that the backup is running, the device will display, which package is being backed up. Now, please wait, until it's finished.

[2.3.6 - Finish]

The output file is now compressed, so a smaller file size than uncompressed is expected.

There are tools, where you can read those ADB-Files.

Make sure, that the filesize is reliable. If the backup is blank (Zero Bytes) or just a few kilobytes, something went wrong. Retry the backup, if this is the case.

[2.4 - Other things]

Now, you have to do the same with following things, if possible or needed:

> SMS

> Call Logs

> Contacts

> Network Configuration (Root needed on Android KitKat/Higher)

Just give it a try. :)

Part 3 - VirtualSD-Backup

This is non-urgent, so if it does not work, it's no problem.

You have to go to the Backup Menu again.

This is very similar to Part 1, and easier, but does only work up to Android 4.3(.1).

If you want to do this on 4.4/Higher, you will need an unlocked bootloader. Vicious cycle.

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[MENTION=3110798]WugFresh[/MENTION], [MENTION=220705]anybody[/MENTION] else; if there's anything i missed, or i described wrong here, like false information, please let me know it by sending me Private Message or better Post in this thread.

If there are problems, feel free posting here :) No problem is irrelevant here.

I hope, my guide was able to help some people here.

I wish you to have very much fun with NRT‼

Test Device: Nexus 7 2012 - 32 GB IntMem - WiFi - Not mobile - Android 4.4.2 KOT49H