[Q] Could I (and should I) copy a stock ROM backup and flash it to a new Note 3?

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rebdogg

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Mar 25, 2011
45
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boston
So I just dropped my Note 3 of 2 weeks on the floor (with a case on it) and although the glass isn't cracked, the LCD and digitizer is definitely junk since its all warped in color and mostly black. Thank the gods I have insurance.

I have it Rooted and Safestrap installed and luckily made a backup before I installed Xposed when all was still well. I'm familar with Clockworkmod and flashing that way but new to Safestrap. What is the best way to get my new phone back to how the dropped one was like? Not sure of what files to copy onto my PC and back onto the new phone once I get a new one. Would it make a difference if the backup is from another phone?

My main concern is getting all my username and passwords out of the OI Safe app so it's the main reason for wanting to flash my old backup to the new phone. Other than that I'm not to worried about the rest of the phone since it's fairly new and didn't have it long enough for lots of pics and getting it set up the way I really wanted it.

Thanks
 
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bftb0

Senior Member
Feb 5, 2010
2,594
1,041
That should work with the following big caveat: if you were on the MJ7 kernel (or earlier), and the new phone is on MJE, restoring the full nandroid backup probably won't work at all and is not adviseable. (Remember that Safestrap "ROM"s do not replace the stock kernel).

If the two phones are from the identical release, then what I would do is the following:

- Root and install SafeStrap as usual.
- Immediately make a Nandroid of the Stock Slot using Safestrap. Get it copied off the phone someplace safe (and named in a way that you can remember it) too.

- Make a second slot in Safestrap and restore the backup from the previous phone to this alternate/second slot.

( Note if you were using a ton of the userdata partition on the old phone you will need to right-size the 2nd slot when you create it. Of course, if you were a data-pig on the old phone and there is no room for a sufficiently-large 2nd slot, then this method of rescue is not available to you. In this case you could restore the original nandroid backup directly to the stock slot - only if you were 100% positive of the same kernel release being used on both phones - but if something goes wrong here you might be making a trip to Odin to re-flash stock and then going through the rooting process all over again ).

- You can use it this way for a little while if you like to see if things are working, or rescue critical data from individual apps, or perhaps make TiBu backups of individual apps (that can be later restored into a different ROM). If things seem to be going swimmingly, you can certainly repeat this process, restoring to the stock slot and then destroying the alternate/second slot.

Note that there are other means of rescue of individual apps which do not require a full restore; this is because the Nandroid backups are (concatenated) "tar" archives, and with sufficient command-line knowledge, you could manually splice into place the appropriate folders from /data/data/*, /data/app/*, and /data/lib/* for individual market apps you wanted to rescue from the old backups. Essentially you are doing the same thing that TiBu does, but manually using adb with the phone in Safestrap recovery mode and the command line.

I'm not going to document this, as it is too tedious to do so - either you already have the working knowledge to do this or you don't. The only tricky part to it is getting the user/group ownership of the files correct. (The easiest way to do this is to install the app from the market, then record the owner/group information it used for the new install of the app, restore the /data/data/* files into the correct place, and then as root "chown" them to the correct user ID... either that or run the "Fix Permissions" script of the recovery).

good luck
 
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rebdogg

Member
Mar 25, 2011
45
3
boston
I am about 99% sure it was on MJE, I remeber checking it before rooting and following the newest root method available for the newest kernel among other things such as installing Safestrap and Xposed framework.

I unfortunately don't have any experience using Odin or adb, which is something I should know how to do seeing I'm always tinkering with all the phones I get. I'm pretty good with figuring things out when someone points me in the right direction such as you did by searching and following guides here on xda so I thank you for that! I'll try your idea of rescuing the individual app such as TiBu would do using adb. Or even restoring the ROM into a second slot, grabbing the data I need, then get rid of that rom.

And for anyone else reading this...it's never too early to use TiBu or any other backup app for all your important data. Never expected my brand new phone to break after only 2 weeks of owning it but lesson learned.

Thanks a lot for the help, I'll let you know how things go once my new phone arrives.
 
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    bftb0
    That should work with the following big caveat: if you were on the MJ7 kernel (or earlier), and the new phone is on MJE, restoring the full nandroid backup probably won't work at all and is not adviseable. (Remember that Safestrap "ROM"s do not replace the stock kernel).

    If the two phones are from the identical release, then what I would do is the following:

    - Root and install SafeStrap as usual.
    - Immediately make a Nandroid of the Stock Slot using Safestrap. Get it copied off the phone someplace safe (and named in a way that you can remember it) too.

    - Make a second slot in Safestrap and restore the backup from the previous phone to this alternate/second slot.

    ( Note if you were using a ton of the userdata partition on the old phone you will need to right-size the 2nd slot when you create it. Of course, if you were a data-pig on the old phone and there is no room for a sufficiently-large 2nd slot, then this method of rescue is not available to you. In this case you could restore the original nandroid backup directly to the stock slot - only if you were 100% positive of the same kernel release being used on both phones - but if something goes wrong here you might be making a trip to Odin to re-flash stock and then going through the rooting process all over again ).

    - You can use it this way for a little while if you like to see if things are working, or rescue critical data from individual apps, or perhaps make TiBu backups of individual apps (that can be later restored into a different ROM). If things seem to be going swimmingly, you can certainly repeat this process, restoring to the stock slot and then destroying the alternate/second slot.

    Note that there are other means of rescue of individual apps which do not require a full restore; this is because the Nandroid backups are (concatenated) "tar" archives, and with sufficient command-line knowledge, you could manually splice into place the appropriate folders from /data/data/*, /data/app/*, and /data/lib/* for individual market apps you wanted to rescue from the old backups. Essentially you are doing the same thing that TiBu does, but manually using adb with the phone in Safestrap recovery mode and the command line.

    I'm not going to document this, as it is too tedious to do so - either you already have the working knowledge to do this or you don't. The only tricky part to it is getting the user/group ownership of the files correct. (The easiest way to do this is to install the app from the market, then record the owner/group information it used for the new install of the app, restore the /data/data/* files into the correct place, and then as root "chown" them to the correct user ID... either that or run the "Fix Permissions" script of the recovery).

    good luck
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