Software that can backup/restore all settings of any apps !

[Guest scollie]

Hi Stan,

Did you perhaps back up your apps with LZO compression (and on a LZO-capable ROM) and then switched to another ROM (ie: non-LZO capable) before verifying your backups ? Currently the "error journal" of the verifier does not *yet* distinguish between "corrupted backup" and "backup with unsupported compression scheme".

Anyway, if that is the case you could try the "Problems?" button to upgrade your busybox to the 1.15.3, LZO-capable version. Please let us know if it works then ;)

Now about the numbers in the Batch menu:

You have 29 user apps backed up. 3 of them were running at the time you opened the Batch menu, so with "running apps excluded" it would include ~26 (which means "approximately 26" and not -26 !) apps.

The reason why it says "approximately 26" is that the final "is the app running ?" decisions will be settled when the backup is actually made - so the Batch menu gives you a hint that it might (or might not) backup some apps that might have started (or stopped) in the meantime (ie: between the moment when you opened the batch menu and the moment when you actually back up the apps).

I know it's a bit tricky, but I hope this clears it up for you :D

Thanks for the quick response and yes that does clear up the ~26!

Anyway I upgraded busybox to 1.15.3 (had 1.15.1 before).

I backed up my apps again and verified and got the same 34 error notifications!

[Guest Keramidas]

Thanks for the quick response and yes that does clear up the ~26!

Anyway I upgraded busybox to 1.15.3 (had 1.15.1 before).

I backed up my apps again and verified and got the same 34 error notifications!

You're welcome !

Well I think it's a possibility that those 34 backups are indeed completely broken. Could you please e-mail me one of those backups ? It should consist of 3 files:

- a .properties file

- a .tar.gz file (might be "bz2" or "lzop" instead of "gz")

- a .apk.gz file (might be "bz2" or "lzop" instead of "gz")

By the way - if either of these 3 files is zero sized or does not exist, that explains the errors.

Thanks !

[Guest JMonkeYJ]

Hi, trying out this app for the first time today on a Droid.

I backed up everything using the batch "Backup all user apps + system data"

I then did a nandroid ROM install

I restored using batch "Restore missing apps with data" (i did this because i didn't want to overwrite any new versions of apps that came with the ROM with my old, backed-up versions)

At this point i noticed system settings (such as home screen layout, account sync settings, WiFi settings, etc) hadn't been restored, so i filtered the list to only be system apps, then did a batch "Restore all backed up apps with data," so that only the system apps would be installed. this still didn't restore the settings above. i now have my home screen restored, but i'm not sure if this is because i also did a Sprite Backup restore, or because i rebooted and it came back.

could you tell me what is wrong with my methodology? what sequence of commands should i use to back everything up, install a new ROM, and then restore everything without overwiting the apps included in the ROM?

this app looks very promising! i'm sure i just did something wrong there...

[Guest Keramidas]

Hi JMonkeYJ,

Your method for backing up everything is correct. But for restoring, using "Restore missing apps with data" will only restore user apps + their data. That's because (by definition) a system app is never "missing". Therefore I'm pretty sure that the restore you have done with Titanium, did *not* include the system items.

For the time being, there are two possible ways:

A: using "Restore all backed up apps with data" and it's done

B: using "Restore missing apps with data" and then restore the desired system items manually.

With "A" => indeed it will replace the apps bundled in the new ROM *if* the corresponding backups exist.

With "B" => if you restore the "green" system items, mostly everything should be restored except the phone language and the Wi-fi access points list.

If I understand right, you would appreciate to have a new batch scenario called "Restore missing apps + all system data" ?

Future improvements to (most probably) come:

- new items in the list, for wi-fi access points list and phone language

- possibility in batch mode for the user to confirm (by checking/unchecking checkboxes) the list of things to be restored.

Thanks ;)

Edited February 8, 2010 by Keramidas

[Guest JMonkeYJ]

thanks Keramidas.

it looks like what i was doing was "B" but then i restored the RED items, rather than the GREEN ones! so now i think i understand better. i will try your suggested method out with a clean install again and see if it does what i want.

a new batch scenario "Restore missing apps + all system data" would be great for updating ROMs! although, would this skip restoring app data if that app is already present? it seems like you probably want the app's data installed, even if you don't want the app itself installed.

also, is my understanding correct that in the registered version of Ti you don't have to accept the install of every backed-up app? that's pretty great.

[Guest Keramidas]

thanks Keramidas.

it looks like what i was doing was "B" but then i restored the RED items, rather than the GREEN ones! so now i think i understand better. i will try your suggested method out with a clean install again and see if it does what i want.

a new batch scenario "Restore missing apps + all system data" would be great for updating ROMs! although, would this skip restoring app data if that app is already present? it seems like you probably want the app's data installed, even if you don't want the app itself installed.

also, is my understanding correct that in the registered version of Ti you don't have to accept the install of every backed-up app? that's pretty great.

You're welcome :D

Yes indeed: for the moment, if such a batch job excludes an already-installed app, it will also exclude the data for that app. Well there's certainly some room for improvement in the future.

Yes absolutely, the Donate version performs unattended (zero-click) app installs, which will even continue to run in the background like a machine gun - but it will of course slow down the phone ;)

[Guest JMonkeYJ]

excellent! your suggested "B" method worked. i think this app is a "must-have" for people who mess with ROMs, and it sounds like you're only going to make it better.

a couple things i noticed:

- although my home screen icons were restored just fine, my desktop widgets were not. maybe this is because i use a home replacement app? (dxTop)

- when you click on a Ti notification in the windowshade (such as "Batch job finished"), it looks like it spawns another Ti process, so when you try to quit, you have to quit multiple times. let me know if i didn't explain that clearly enough.

keep up the good work; i'm eager for future versions. and i also regret buying Sprite Backup now ;)

[Guest Keramidas]

excellent! your suggested "B" method worked. i think this app is a "must-have" for people who mess with ROMs, and it sounds like you're only going to make it better.

a couple things i noticed:

- although my home screen icons were restored just fine, my desktop widgets were not. maybe this is because i use a home replacement app? (dxTop)

- when you click on a Ti notification in the windowshade (such as "Batch job finished"), it looks like it spawns another Ti process, so when you try to quit, you have to quit multiple times. let me know if i didn't explain that clearly enough.

keep up the good work; i'm eager for future versions. and i also regret buying Sprite Backup now :D

Many thanks for your feedback - and thanks for your donation too ;)

- Ah yes, I guess you need to backup & restore the dxTop data ?

- Thanks, I will look at that. All of this is for power management by Android and it can be quite complex...

I will probably release a new version in a few minutes, adding the batch scenario that we talked about :(

Thanks again - and have a nice evening !

Edited February 8, 2010 by Keramidas

[Guest Keramidas]

New version 2.6.1 is now online !

It includes the new batch backup scenario and improves the Backup Verifier: when an error occurs, it says whether it is a bad backup or simply a missing compression codec.

[Guest 5Strogino]

New version 2.6.1 is now online !

It includes the new batch backup scenario and improves the Backup Verifier: when an error occurs, it says whether it is a bad backup or simply a missing compression codec.

Thank you for new version - very usefull app.

Please, post change log to your page: http://membres.multimania.fr/numlock79/android/

It will be good thing)

[Guest scollie]

You're welcome !

Well I think it's a possibility that those 34 backups are indeed completely broken. Could you please e-mail me one of those backups ? It should consist of 3 files:

- a .properties file

- a .tar.gz file (might be "bz2" or "lzop" instead of "gz")

- a .apk.gz file (might be "bz2" or "lzop" instead of "gz")

By the way - if either of these 3 files is zero sized or does not exist, that explains the errors.

Thanks !

Hi Keramidas

While looking for a backup to send you I discovered that all 17 (each failing twice) were apk.lzop files created between 09/01/10 and 11/01/10.

Since then all other apk files are actually apk.gz and these don't error!

So do you still want me to send you the files you asked for above or should I

1) delete all apk.lzop files and back them up again?r

2) or do I need to also delete the tar.gz and properties files associated with them then back them up?

Cheers Stan

Edit

None of the files were zero sized

Edited February 9, 2010 by scollie

[Guest Keramidas]

Hi Keramidas

While looking for a backup to send you I discovered that all 17 (each failing twice) were apk.lzop files created between 09/01/10 and 11/01/10.

Since then all other apk files are actually apk.gz and these don't error!

So do you still want me to send you the files you asked for above or should I

1) delete all apk.lzop files and back them up again?r

2) or do I need to also delete the tar.gz and properties files associated with them then back them up?

Cheers Stan

Edit

None of the files were zero sized

Hi Stan,

Option 1 is not enough: you need to go for "option 2".

Clearly the old busybox that you had when making the backups, resulted in corrupted LZO files. This is the reason why I changed the default value to gzip !

I'm glad that the backup verifier exists now ;)

Thanks

[Guest Catscrash]

puh, re-installing 260 apps that way, really takes a looong time... isn't there any way to fasten up the progress of clicking "install" -> "finish" for every item?

edit: where is the lockscreen-data stored?

Edited February 9, 2010 by Catscrash

[Guest Keramidas]

puh, re-installing 260 apps that way, really takes a looong time... isn't there any way to fasten up the progress of clicking "install" -> "finish" for every item?

Yes there sure is ! Just get the donate version, it's zero-click !

[Guest scollie]

Hi Stan,

Option 1 is not enough: you need to go for "option 2".

Clearly the old busybox that you had when making the backups, resulted in corrupted LZO files. This is the reason why I changed the default value to gzip !

I'm glad that the backup verifier exists now ;)

Thanks

Hi Keramis

OK followed option 2 - deleted and backed up again and now verification shows no errors!

Thanks

Stan

[Guest Keramidas]

Hi Keramis

OK followed option 2 - deleted and backed up again and now verification shows no errors!

Thanks

Stan

Stan, thanks for the good news ;)

By the way, I have even better news: I was wrong ! Sorry for the false alerts. The backups you have just deleted were - almost certainly - good.

The bug was in the verifier code in 2.6.1, which was using the system's busybox instead of the app's busybox. In your case it caused the LZO decompression to fail (during the verification), even though a restore operation would certainly have worked !

This bug is totally fixed is 2.6.2, which I have just published today. In other words - if you still had those backups, I'm sure they would pass the tests now :D

[Guest Uberadri]

Awesome application! :D Thanks a lot!

Donated "A bit more"! :D My feature wish list:

• Icons for uninstalled apps (so much easier to find the right one)
  
• Checklist for batch installing selected apps (gives you the option of a clean start with only the most important apps)
  
• Batch scenario for "restore all system data" (for use with checklist)
  
• Apply button in filter (maybe in menu if there is no space, not important, but it's so unnatural applying with back button)
  

Also I can confirm the bug of having to exit the application twice after opening it via notification.

And I found a kinda workaround for batch installing selected apps:

Make a label for the apps you want to install in Apps organizer before flashing/uninstalling, then use filter by that label when restoring.

[Guest Kory K]

First off very handy piece of software here! This is one of the primary reasons I rooted by Droid.

I also have a feature request that, IMHO, would add a lot of value to the app.

-Backup to a remote location with an option to choose either gmail or a configurable SFTP or HTTPS server for storage.

Personally I'd prefer an HTTPS server with authentication but I'm also curious as to which method other users would choose and why (or if they'd use it at all).

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Kory

[Guest Keramidas]

Awesome application! :lol: Thanks a lot!

Donated "A bit more"! :D My feature wish list:

• Icons for uninstalled apps (so much easier to find the right one)
  
• Checklist for batch installing selected apps (gives you the option of a clean start with only the most important apps)
  
• Batch scenario for "restore all system data" (for use with checklist)
  
• Apply button in filter (maybe in menu if there is no space, not important, but it's so unnatural applying with back button)
  

Also I can confirm the bug of having to exit the application twice after opening it via notification.

And I found a kinda workaround for batch installing selected apps:

Make a label for the apps you want to install in Apps organizer before flashing/uninstalling, then use filter by that label when restoring.

Hi Uberadri,

Thanks for your feedback ! All of your 4 suggestions make good sense to me - they are duly noted, and btw, the checklist for batch operations has been requested by several persons already :D

Yes, I am aware about the small bug too (will probably correct it very soon).

And indeed you're totally right, these Apps Organizer labels can be very handy...

Thanks again !

[Guest Keramidas]

First off very handy piece of software here! This is one of the primary reasons I rooted by Droid.

I also have a feature request that, IMHO, would add a lot of value to the app.

-Backup to a remote location with an option to choose either gmail or a configurable SFTP or HTTPS server for storage.

Personally I'd prefer an HTTPS server with authentication but I'm also curious as to which method other users would choose and why (or if they'd use it at all).

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Kory

Hi Kory,

Yes - for everyone interested: please indicate which protocol(s) you would need the most !

And another question for the same people on the "remote storage" matter: would it be okay if I implemented is this way:

- Titanium Backup first performs a local backup to the SD card just like now,

- The user has the option to do one-way sync (within Titanium itself) to the server, when any backup has completed, or even later

- In case of disaster, Titanium Backup could easily pull any lost/corrupted files back from the server.

That would (imho) have some advantages:

- Allows for offline operation just like before, if the server cannot be accessed

- Faster app list display because it won't need to access the server before knowing how many backups exist for an app, etc.

- Can sync to server exactly when the user wants it.

The only disadvantages would be:

- some SD card space is used by backups (like it is now)

- if phone is stolen, everything is on the SD card (I could solve it through encryption !)

Edited February 14, 2010 by Keramidas

[Guest giryan]

I think ssh/ftp would be my preference, I've a shell account I can backup to, although gmail & the others I could get working :D

Yes, I'd certainly prefer the ability to keep the backup on the SD card and then push it "off site", potentially as a separate step.

Then a configurable option to restore from either the off-site location, or the SD card.

One other suggestion, but I'm not entirely sure it's possible, would be to back up the Titanium apk? and it's config?

Basically, despite my ROM having Titanium in I have to re-download it every time I flash, as you've added new features since the rom was burnt.

I'm not that bothered about the data usage, but I did have to re-flash/recover when I had no reception a couple of weeks ago, and it luckily there hadn't been any major changes to Titanium from the version burnt in the ROM, so it restored happily. But if it'd got a bit more out of date I think I could have been stuck .

[Guest Keramidas]

I think ssh/ftp would be my preference, I've a shell account I can backup to, although gmail & the others I could get working :D

Yes, I'd certainly prefer the ability to keep the backup on the SD card and then push it "off site", potentially as a separate step.

Then a configurable option to restore from either the off-site location, or the SD card.

One other suggestion, but I'm not entirely sure it's possible, would be to back up the Titanium apk? and it's config?

Basically, despite my ROM having Titanium in I have to re-download it every time I flash, as you've added new features since the rom was burnt.

I'm not that bothered about the data usage, but I did have to re-flash/recover when I had no reception a couple of weeks ago, and it luckily there hadn't been any major changes to Titanium from the version burnt in the ROM, so it restored happily. But if it'd got a bit more out of date I think I could have been stuck .

Hi giryan,

I will look at implementing ssh/scp (and possibly ftp) in Titanium Backup, almost certainly as a separate step. But I wonder: aren't there good tools on the Market, for syncing a directory between Android and remote servers already ? And beside sparing 2-3 clicks, what would be the advantage of me integrating that ?

By the way - I have added a "Backup to remote server" option for which you can now vote.

About Titanium Backup backing itself up: yes I think it's a good idea.

The reason why it (currently) does not list itself along with the other apps is simply to avoid issues like Titanium Backup trying to kill & restore itself.

But a nice thing that I could do, would be that Titanium Backup performs an automatic self-backup to your SD card, every time a new version of Titanium Backup is started.

Would that be good ? I have also added this to the poll choices :D

PS: Your backups are backward compatible with older Titanium Backup versions - unless you run a very old app version which didn't support the compression method you use today (eg: bzip2 etc).

Edited February 15, 2010 by Keramidas

[Guest giryan]

Hi giryan,

I will look at implementing ssh/scp (and possibly ftp) in Titanium Backup, almost certainly as a separate step. But I wonder: aren't there good tools on the Market, for syncing a directory between Android and remote servers already ? And beside sparing 2-3 clicks, what would be the advantage of me integrating that ?

Ahh, yeah, I'd not actually thought about it at all until it was mentioned here. I think I'll have a look at what they do. certainly if they're easy to set up it seems there's not a particular advantage to adding it to Titanium.

By the way - I have added a "Backup to remote server" option for which you can now vote.

About Titanium Backup backing itself up: yes I think it's a good idea.

The reason why it (currently) does not list itself along with the other apps is simply to avoid issues like Titanium Backup trying to kill & restore itself.

But a nice thing that I could do, would be that Titanium Backup performs an automatic self-backup to your SD card, every time a new version of Titanium Backup is started.

Would that be good ? I have also added this to the poll choices :D

Great, that option I'd definitely like, off to vote now :lol:

PS: Your backups are backward compatible with older Titanium Backup versions - unless you run a very old app version which didn't support the compression method you use today (eg: bzip2 etc).

Thanks that's reasuring to know :D

[Guest Kory K]

I will look at implementing ssh/scp (and possibly ftp) in Titanium Backup, almost certainly as a separate step. But I wonder: aren't there good tools on the Market, for syncing a directory between Android and remote servers already ? And beside sparing 2-3 clicks, what would be the advantage of me integrating that ?

I looked for a bit for an app that would sync a directory to a configurable location but couldn't find one that suited my needs. Most of the ones that I found (i.e. sugarsync) have their free services limited to 2GB. I have plenty of space on my server but don't have an app that will sync to it. Maybe an external app or script would be the way to go if it doesn't make sense to integrate it into Titanium Backup. I might also be missing the app I was looking for, does anybody currently know of an app that syncs files/folders to a personal scp/https/sftp server (it doesn't matter to me which)?

If you do setup scheduled and remote backups in Titanium separate steps would be fine but it would be nice if they both could be scheduled. I would like the ability, for example, to do weekly backups to SD and send biweekly backups to server. Maybe a sister "Titanium Sync (for root)" app would be something to think about...

Thanks,

Kory

[Guest giryan]

Keramidas, because I've voted once( on batches when you first put the poll up) I can't vote again.

I think that you might need to create a new poll if you want people to vote again?