[Q] Exact Copy

frostyboy998 said:

Hi guys,
Can someone tell me the best way to make an exact copy of a brand new phone so that I can always go back to the 'as new' config.
This would be a new phone straight from the box.
Thanks
frostyboy998

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Data factory reset?

Well the best way is to get a copy of the image that the factory uses.. Well, perhaps that is impractical.

The most faithful copy that we could probably do from home would be using dd from the command line to make a sector by sector image. But you need super user (root) to do that. Possibly you could do it from an ADB session without root (untested). Using the linux dd utility or an ADB session are cumbersome and rather technical for many end users though..

In practical terms, either as gee2012 suggested above. I'm not certain that would get you to an exactly out of the box experience.. but it would be close.. easy to do and repeatable. So a decent solution. And should the file system get really messed up, you could presumably reflash a full OEM image to get back to that point as well.

Or another approach that I would favour myself would be to do a full Nandroid instead to resolve small discrepancies that probably exist between out of the box and the state a factory reset would put the device in. The downside being that a full Nandroid is easiest to do with a custom recovery.. and that will trip the Knox counter which will have warranty implications for some. Whether it affects your warranty depends on country you reside in, how well national legislation there protects consumer rights, whether your carrier cares about Knox and whether you care about the warranty much to begin with.

I would take the out of box phone, flash a custom recovery, and then do a full Nandroid backup. Your nandroid then will be an exact representation of your out of the box configuration, save for the recovery per se. To restore precisely would be one or two steps. Restoring the Nandroid would revert everything except recovery to the out of the box condition. And should that point matter, then one could do the second step of restoring the stock recovery as well..

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Download from Sammobile the ROM, so you can flash via ODIN.

frostyboy998 said:

Thanks for your comments.
Here is my reasoning.....

I currently use a Galaxy S3, pending getting the S5 very soon.
When I first got my S3 it seemed perfect. Everything worked well.
I have since done a number of Kies updates and also a couple of Sammobile updates via Odin.
Every time I updated, there seemed to be some things that didn't work as well.

So I decided to try and revert to the original firmware that came with my mobile, via Sammobile and Odin.
I have done this, but now, whenever I leave a wifi zone, my mobile internet seems to connect when it feels like it. Sometimes not at all.
I have to switch mobile internet off, restart the phone and then switch mobile internet back on, to get it to start up.

When I get my new S5, I would like to have an exact copy of the phone, so that I can always revert to my very own original setup if I choose to.
Apparently after updating beyond Android 4.3, there came a change in the format of the EFS folder, which prevented stepping back.
I don't want to be forced into that position again, so want a perfect copy!

From my reading, it appears I would have to root the phone, install Titanium backup, do a full nandroid backup, then unroot the phone and reset the counters to be back in warranty.
Am I right or would that not work?

frostyboy

edit: After updating firmware on a phone, does a factory reset change back to a previous firmware? I would think not. I think it would just reset all the added consumer stuff. (contacts, apps, emails and sms etc)

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Rooting with Towelroot doesn`t trip KNOX but flashing a custom recovery to make a nandroid backup will and is irreversible. Best is to backup the EFS folder after you are rooted with an app here http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s3/development/efs-samsung-tool-universal-support-t2602325 or with adb as documented here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2737448.
BTW Triangle Away doesn`t work on the S5 atm so resetting the status to official after you flashed custom software with Odin isn not possible