yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
I was able to flash DU zip and got back up and running . here's the log of the backup restore which fail with error 255 :

Edit : Here's the log : https://pastebin.com/N5KWAFBV
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
What did you end up doing to get it working?

Thanks
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
I just flashed the rom zip i had on my sd . I figured that would work , I just want to be able to restore backups .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
I have been doing some testing and I can backup and restore full "nandroid" backups.

I backup boot, system image and data

Works 99% of the time without having to flash factory with -w. But that 1% happens.

Successful with stock, du and aex. Haven't tried with other ROMs.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bigbiff:
The console is not enough for debugging. We need to see /tmp/recovery.log.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Yeah, i was able to backup and restore any rom until i tried th GSI rom . The only problem was to restore stock rom after flashing other roms which is a problem for everyone with the Pixel XL .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jcmm11:
Stick the log on a pastebin site and post the link, or you can try zipping the log file and posting the zip.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Here is the log https://pastebin.com/N5KWAFBV
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bigbiff:
You posted a link to the front page of pastebin.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
I know i can do this, just want to be able to restore backups like i was able to do a few days ago . I could just restore any of the roms i backed up . I just flash Stock with the -w and did a back up of that then tried to restore the backup of DU I had before , the restore was a success but it didn’t boot, it just reboot and went back to bootloader . I then restored the backup of stock i did just before and that booted fine .

---------- Post added at 06:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------

Thanks, i just signed up for the Pro version of Pastebin because it was having the same issue with the file size .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Did you try it again ?. I thought it uploaded the first time but there was an error saying the file size is too big and is only supported in the pro version which i got and re-paste the file . Could you try again maybe i did something wrong, it's my first time using Pastebin . I see it when i sign in .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bigbiff:
Did you get a url to link to from pastebin?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
I copied it from the top of the page . Is there a special way to do it ?.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bigbiff:
There is some random characters after the url to include. If possible can you just put the last relevant lines of the recovery.log here in a post?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Try this one: https://pastebin.com/N5KWAFBV
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
Where are your backup files located when you do a restore?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Did that link work for you ?.

Here is where my backup are save :

View attachment 4694954View attachment 4694955View attachment 4694956View attachment 4694957
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
Looks like you are storing them on the sdcard. It is a known issue that even though it says not deleting /data/media it does at times.

It is deleting your backup files.

I use other and USB drive to do restores from.

Hope this helps

Just looked at your screen shots that is the issue. Try otg and USB drive.

I have made that mistake a few times too.

Look at the tripatch forum for the warning too.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Don't understand what you are saying the Backup files are there and it was working with no issues before until i mess around with the GSI Rom .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
You are storing on the internal sdcard and even though twrp says it is deleting /data and not /data/media it does at most times delete the /data/media which is your sdcard.

Check out the OP on tripatch. I think it is the last paragraph.

---------- Post added at 02:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:43 AM ----------

I looked at your log file and it can't find the files because they were deleted.

Just so you know I just flashed a gsi rom (arrow) over a stock rom (restore from twrp backup) booted into arrow then did a restore of aex rom from twrp and it booted fine.

I use otg for all my restores and I use tripatch for my backups so that I get my sdcard contents too.

I can't say why it just started and I do t think it is related to gsi rom. I flashed one for the first time today and have had that issue before. That is why I went otg.

I pm'd you.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
But when i did a restore after a wipe the Backup file is the which i click on to restore . Last restore i did restore successfully but it didn't boot . If the file was deleted it wouldn't say restored successfully . The two i did before that failed and gave me error 255 but the files where there .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
I don't know about the first one but the error 255 is because of the /data/media being deleted.

I'm telling you I went through all the steps you did and it works. The only difference is where we store the files.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Alright i have an otg gonna try doing backup on it and test . I the earlier days of the Pixel 3 XL my backup on the otg was failing
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
Works much better on the latest twrp. Good luck let us know how it goes.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
You are right Restore works fine from External storage . Thanks
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
You're welcome. Took some time to figure it out but know you can happily flash ROMs without even being by a PC. Just remember to flash twrp right after you install a new rom and before booting. That way you can boot back to recovery and flash magisk, etc right from your external.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
So if i’m Restoring a backup of the same rom all is ok but if i try to restore a backup of a different rom that’s when i get the issue where it just boots back to bootloader. This happen on backups on OTG or on the phone’s SD. Don’t know if it’s a compatibility issue with the two roms . The roms i’m Using are Dirty Unicorn and AospExtended . To get the rom to restore i flash the rom zip for the rom i’m restoring, boot and setup then restore the backup of that rom .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
What partitions are you backing up?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Boot, System.img and data .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
That is strange I did testing yesterday and I didn't have the issue. I went from stock flashed gsi and restorered aex. I will load up du and back it up. Then restore aex.

Not sure how soon I can get to it but I will.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] Daisymae:
Pardon my ignorance but what is tripatch?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
It is an app that patches twrp so your sdcard contents get backed up as well. Something missing from twrp.

My bad it is tipatch. Sorry
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Did the gsi you flashed work ? . My problem with restoring backups of different roms started after flashing Resurrection gsi . Before i could flash any rom and restore there backup with ease .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
I'm going to pm you.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Do you guys do a wipe before restoring a Backup .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jd1639:
If you're restoring boot, system, and data a wipe is good practice. If you're restoring just data then you don't want to do a wipe. If you do you won't have an OS to boot to.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] NepoRood:
I use to, but got out of the habit on my last few devices. It certainly won't hurt anything, unless you're only restoring data (as previously stated by [MENTION=4858937]jd1639[/MENTION])
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] ubergeek77:
Edit: Apologies for the mini panic attack I had below, it appears to restore fine through TWRP. I can see the files in /data/app in TWRP after the restore, so I suppose I can manually pull the files I need through adb. Although, I would prefer a way to extract this normally on a Linux system, but I guess that's just how TWRP works.

Learn from my example: don't go mucking about with things in /data if you don't know what you're doing. Don't be like me and take a backup after the damage is done, do it before!!!

My TWRP backups seem to be corrupted, at least the /data one. Trying to extract it gives me a slew of tar errors. I've tried extracting it with:

cat data.f2fs.win??? >> out.tar && tar -xf out.tar

I've also tried:

cat data.f2fs.win??? | tar -xf -

Doesn't matter how I extract it, tar will print a ton of errors that say:

tar: Malformed extended header: missing equal sign

And then it will fail with:

tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

It quits before extracting the ./app folder, which I really, really need. I can't restore the backup, since I royally screwed up something while trying to replace my WebView app, and for some reason the /data partition was causing a bootloop. Though that's besides the point - even my backups from last year are showing these tar errors.

Is this a known issue? Is there something I can do to extract it? And will this restore normally on TWRP in spite of the tar errors?

I wiped my data thinking I had a backup I could just browse, so I'm really concerned I just lost all my stuff.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] NepoRood:
Unless something has changed, you can just rename the file to a "zip", ie: from "data.f2fs.win" to "data.f2fs.zip", then you can extract
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] ubergeek77:
Doing that against a combined file (by concatenating all of the 001, 002, etc files together) just gives me an error:

unzip: invalid zip magic 7461642F

And running 'file data.f2fs.zip' outputs:

POSIX tar archive (GNU)

So I think it's definitely a tar.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] NepoRood:
Ok, then things have changed, I haven't had a reason to extract a TWRP archive in a while. If I need something from the device, I just pull it with adb or use a root file explorer. Did you try renaming with the tar extension?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jcmm11:
Pretty sure it's a .tgz (or .tar.gzip) file.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] suzook:
Any reason we cant get TWRP to back up efs partition. It would be helpful if something bad would occur. Its available on the One plus and sammy devices. Just curious.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] lollyjay:
I believe that you can backup efs using adb fwiw
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] ubergeek77:
Sadly not, trying to untar it as a gzip gives:

gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

Running 'file' still shows "POSIX tar archive (GNU)" instead of "gzip compressed data, from Unix," the latter of which would show if it were gzipped.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bigbiff:
TWRP has always used tar for backup, and we have been using libtar for a while now updated to support selinux contexts and ext4 encryption policies. It will be gzipped if you select compression. Tar utilities might ignore the extra headers and extract properly on a desktop OS.

Please don't submit bug reports if you have used the data sdcard backup patch. We don't support that patch in official TWRP.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] ubergeek77:
I didn't select compression, so based on what you're saying, I should have a standard tar archive. The problem is that a desktop OS doesn't extract it properly. This is a 13GB backup, and tar fails after extracting the first ~1.3GB. The errors that tar prints to stderr do indicate that it is ignoring some headers when extracting that initial 1.3GB, but it still fails before extracting any of the files I'm after. Another backup I took roughly a month ago also behaves this way.

In most cases, restoring an entire data backup to a working device just to grab a handful of files is either not viable or not an option. I can see from browsing the source files that TWRP uses a modified version of libtar, and while I wasn't personally able to build this, I'm hoping this can be used to create an x86_64 tool that can understand and extract TWRP-made tar archives. Something like that would be incredibly useful for a lot of people; based on my Google searches when trying to find a way to extract this tar archive, it seems that this type of issue has been present in TWRP backups for a number of years.

Is it possible to create an extraction utility such as that?

I have no idea what "data sdcard patch" you're talking about, I just used the latest version of TWRP available for this device, so I didn't apply any patches. My backup also doesn't contain anything from /sdcard, so this was your standard /data backup made by TWRP.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jcmm11:
You should be able to extract the file from the correct backup file. In other words treat each volume as individual backup. About 1.3GB sounds like it extracted the first volume. Did you tell tar to treat it as a multi-volume backup? (Note - I haven't tried as a multi-volume file on a desktop system)

Also, directly on the phone, zarchiver and rar can both open the files (you may have to give them a tar extension for rar)

The patch he's talking about is tipatch, which includes the /sdcard/ contents in the backup
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] ubergeek77:
Thanks for the tip! I gave this a try with some of the other parts with the -t (list) flag, but on some of them, it exits pretty quickly, and even after iterating over all of the parts, I don't see output for files that I know are there. Tar does seem to consider them individual archives though, so that's a good note I suppose.

I won't be able to look at this over the weekend, but I'm definitely coming back to digging through these files before long. Hopefully I'll be able to find something this way.

But I have to ask - are you not able to concatenate each of the files together to make one large archive to extract them? I remember I used to do this a lot a few years ago for a number of TWRP backups and I don't think I ran into any issues like this. Maybe I'm not combining them correctly?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] dnsmo:
Feb 2019 patched and twrp 3.2.3-3 works like a charm.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] stones0:
Having some trouble restoring from a TWRP backup. Flashed Feb update, everything went fine, made a backup and transferred to PC. Latest platform tools, latest twrp, latest magisk etc.

Had to do a factory reset today at request of Google, now how to restore the TWRP backup? Every way i try to do it seems to result in an unbootable device one way or another.

I can enter recovery mode and flash-all -w to get back to stock fine after a failed attempt. Must be some specific step I'm missing, thoughts?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
Try flash-all with -w and restore just data.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] zard:
It seems to me that within temp TWRP, when I do a slot switch followed by flashing Magisk, and doing a system reboot, it will end up with a corrupted system, and cannot boot.

I recalled last month or 2 months back, that I had also tried doing a reboot back to temp TWRP after slot change before Magisk flash, corruption still happens.

Maybe my steps is wrong. Possibly after slot change, I need a full system boot before going back into temp TWRP to flash Magisk.

I'm using latest TWRP and Magisk.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jcmm11:
Why are you messing with slots? Normally you shouldn't have to worry about them.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] zard:
Because I want to patch both slots to the latest Android Security Patch.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] joetheshmo:
Why
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] stones0:
Thanks for the suggestion! Tried that, didn't work the first time, second time I got it up and running. Restored and booted, updated all my apps and got stuff working.

Then i booted into TWRP via fastboot and installed twrp via the installer zip and now it only boots into twrp, try booting system and goes right back to twrp. lolz

Any thoughts before i do a wipe again?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
Don't wipe

Fastboot flash boot boot.img

Boot the phone

Go back to bootloader

Fastboot boot twrp.img

Install twrp.zip
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] stones0:
Thanks again, will try that. boot.img meaning for eg: bootloader-crosshatch-b1c1-0.1-5155331.img correct?

I did try manual factory boot flash but it didn't seem to work, will try again.

Right, i get this when i try flashing boot

Should i be flashing bootloader instead?
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
No in the zip you will find boot.img

---------- Post added at 03:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:10 AM ----------

If you want you should flash the update to both slots before even messing if twrp. Still no need to do it.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] stones0:
Thanks again haha, ok so I had tried this earlier with the same results but I just tried again now.

Flashed boot and got a successful boot in the OS.

booted twrp.img from fastboot

entered into twrp on the phone

installed twrp-pixel3-installer-crosshatch-3.2.3-3.zip, all successful i can see it flashing a/b slots

hit reboot system and get booted right back into twrp, try a full poweroff/poweron and same thing, right into twrp.

also tried the above skipping the os boot by doing a direct fastboot reboot-bootloader right back into recovery with the same results

So yea, I dunno. I might just give up here and not permanently install twrp lol
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
Not sure maybe it's an issue with the Feb update and twrp.

Anyone else able to flash twrp on Feb? I thought I read somewhere here someone was able to not sure if they flashed it or just booted.

I know Google made changes to the bootloader and other images this month.

I'm running a custom rom so I need to wait until it is updated for Feb or else I would test.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] Homeboy76:
People on this thread did: [Guide] Pixel 3 XL Android 9.0 (Pie) Unlock/Root/Install Images/Kernels/Recovery + by homeboy76
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] stones0:
Yea not sure, I thought I read it as working with the feb update too. I could also be a complete tard tho.

Got it working with the stock bootloader, Ill just wait on news I guess.

Thanks for all the help, was getting a wee bit frustrated there.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
Im wondering if it was a pixel 3 or not. That might make a difference. I didn't see what device he had.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] zard:
Lol! I just want to do that, just like you doesn't want to. Personal preference, I guess.

---------- Post added at 11:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 AM ----------
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] joetheshmo:
I've seen it said multiple times by devs much more knowledgeable than I since pixel 1 days that you shouldn't mess with slots. I've never had problems and I always stay on slot A. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] Homeboy76:
Opps! posted the wrong thread. People on this thread did with #4 'keep data' then #7 to root: [Guide] Pixel 3 XL Android 9.0 (Pie) Unlock/Root/Install Images/Kernels/Recovery + by homeboy76
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] bggold:
Good to know. Not sure what [MENTION=3836802]stones0[/MENTION] issue is. Maybe he should check out your guide.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] zard:
No, not to both slots.

I was on slot B for the past 2 updates, so I wanted to get my default slot back to slot A.

Yes, I am aware of the design and purpose of having 2 slots. Back then, Xiaomi's rom were designed with 2 system partitions (maybe their rom are still like that, I'm not sure).

On Mi Pad, each system partition space was very small, thus I adapted a zip from another device to delete system partition 2 and then expand system partition 1 size to become doubled. That way, custom roms could be easily flashed on just system partition 1, but we loss the designed advantage of system partition 2 for use when system partition 1 fails.

I don't want TWRP to be permanent, and I don't use custom kernels. I only root it for the purpose of running Titanium Backup and using temporary TWRP to backup the partitions. If the default Pixel 3 XL recovery can backup at least the data partition, I won't even need to root.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] loonix:
I had the same issue as [MENTION=3836802]stones0[/MENTION] and jcmm11's post from [MENTION=4810220]Homeboy76[/MENTION]'s excellent thread turned out to be pertinent. I forgot to unhide Magisk Manager first.

.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] Daisymae:
I got the Feb update to work with TWRP and Magisk but with a LOT of trouble and trial and error. More error than trial. I'm not even sure how I did it.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] hilla_killa:
Why are we messing with slots absolutely no need to with our monthly updates. None at all.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] Golf c:
I'm not going to get into the complexities of a/b slots here. But if you flash alot of custom roms, I find it alot easier to start with identical slots. Great example is January to February update where the bootloader and radio has changed. People are lost trying to figure out why they won't boot.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] jawonder:
Both TWRP and Magisk worked fine for me on February update and I didn’t have tro do anything above normal .
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] hawki:
stays on bootloader

following the instructions, but my phone just stays on bootloader. see pic. Any help would be appreciated.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] joetheshmo:
You want to use the command

fastboot boot TWRP.img
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] spotmark:
Just a side note. That's assuming it is named TWRP.img. You have to type it as it is named. Or rename it TWRP.img.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] hawki:
Thanks - I tried fastboot boot TWRP.img previously and my phone just stays on bootloader. Just tried is again and still stuck. see pics,
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] joetheshmo:
Did you download the twrp .img file and place it in your working directory?

Perhaps if you can't figure this out an unlocked bootloader isn't for you.
[Google Pixel 3 XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Oth] Bubba:
How long did you wait?