Development [RECOVERY][OFFICIAL] TWRP 3.7.1-0 for Galaxy A52s 5G

[BlackMesa123]

Well, depends what you call working fine... ^^

I'm just surprise nobody even truly tested it doing a full backup and then trying to restore the same backup and as nobody reported theses issues !!!

Here is the picture of the result when I tried to do a full restore : it just stops with a Failed message when it encounters both "Vendor Boot" and/or "Vendor system" partitions.

After a reboot the Navbar has disappeared until we do reboot the phone.
If we do a backup in the internal storage the TWRP folder can be seen with Samsung filemanager and thus is just invisible !!!

The recovery.log file has been sent to you privately.

Happy New Year 2023 to you and you all

Backup/restoring logical partitions might not work correctly due to how this feature works. Try to backup the whole super partition instead of each partition individually (system/vendor/odm/product), also make sure your external SD isn't formatted as FAT32 since this FS has a 4GB limit per file that might break your backup files.

 

[Arobase404]

Backup/restoring logical partitions might not work correctly due to how this feature works. Try to backup the whole super partition instead of each partition individually (system/vendor/odm/product), also make sure your external SD isn't formatted as FAT32 since this FS has a 4GB limit per file that might break your backup files.

I'm not backing up each partition individually but the whole system (which seems not to cause the issues) but the problems occur only when I try to restore the same whole partitions !
Problems occur only when your TWRP is trying to restore the "Vendor" partitions as already stated !

I'm either not using FAT32 but the default exFat fs when you buy a micro SD card. But the issue is the same when backing up and restoring from internal storage.

I'm using TWRP with my Galaxy Note 9 and my Galaxy tab S6 for years now and I never got this kind of problems since now...
I also never had the "invisible" internal TWRP folder issue with my other Samsung devices...

EDIT : I made a mistake in my previous post when I wrote
"If we do a backup in the internal storage the TWRP folder can be seen with Samsung filemanager and thus is just invisible !!!" as you have to change "can be seen" by "can't be seen..."...

 

[BlackMesa123]

Problems occur only when your TWRP is trying to restore the "Vendor" partitions as already stated !

Gave a look at the logs you sent me and seems like I messed up with the vendor partition when implementing the anti-stock recovery restore custom script, the next TWRP release (3.7.0-3) should have this bug fixed (will update the thread when it's up in twrp.me).

I'm using TWRP with my Galaxy Note 9 and my Galaxy tab S6 for years now and I never got this kind of problems since now...

Those devices are pretty old now and they don't have the new dynamic partitions scheme required by Google in newer Android devices, hence why this new stuff is in place.

I also never had the "invisible" internal TWRP folder issue with my other Samsung devices...

EDIT : I made a mistake in my previous post when I wrote
"If we do a backup in the internal storage the TWRP folder can be seen with Samsung filemanager and thus is just invisible !!!" as you have to change "can be seen" by "can't be seen..."...

Are you sure you've changed the file list view from "Essentials" to "All" in My Files app? I can see the TWRP folder in my phone...

 

[Arobase404]

Gave a look at the logs you sent me and seems like I messed up with the vendor partition when implementing the anti-stock recovery restore custom script, the next TWRP release (3.7.0-3) should have this bug fixed (will update the thread when it's up in twrp.me).

Yep, I understood there was a problem when I saw the message "Operation not permitted" in the log just when it was trying to restore both "Vendor" partitions.
Hope you will be able to fix this issue pretty soon.

But what about the missing Navbar when we are rebooting to system the first time and why we do need to reboot a second time to retrieve this Navbar ?

I can't say for sure but I think this Navbar issue was not there in your twrp-3.6.2_12-1-a52sxq-20220904 version with Android 12 and before the release of Android 13.

Those devices are pretty old now and they don't have the new dynamic partitions scheme required by Google in newer Android devices, hence why this new stuff is in place.

This is true with my Galaxy Note 9, but my Galaxy tab S6 received Android 12L and I don't know if this version is already using dynamic partition or not but the TWRP works just fine and with no fuss.

Are you sure you've changed the file list view from "Essentials" to "All" in My Files app? I can see the TWRP folder in my phone...

LOL

I didn't realize there was this option (or I forgot it) in this My File app...

But I guess the TWRP folder you saw in the log is the one in my external SDcard as I created the second backup in the internal storage after I created the log...

Anyhow, well done

 

[BlackMesa123]

A new minor version of the recovery is now available in twrp.me for download, with a fix for the /vendor backup restoring bug.

But what about the missing Navbar when we are rebooting to system the first time and why we do need to reboot a second time to retrieve this Navbar ?

I don't know what are you talking about, me and neither other users have had issues with the navigation bar on both TWRP and system.

 

[Arobase404]

A new minor version of the recovery is now available in twrp.me for download, with a fix for the /vendor backup restoring bug.



I don't know what are you talking about, me and neither other users have had issues with the navigation bar on both TWRP and system.

Probably because nobody even tried to do a full restore before and tested your twrp in different ways ???

If you did you wouldn't have asked and awaited after my recovery.log file... x)

Anyway, I installed your latest recovery and it seems to work fine in some ways... ^^

I did a full backup of CVL2 at 3 PM then a full restore and it was ok.

Then I tried to recover a CVI6 backup dated from Nov. 30th and I got 3 errors :
- "Failed to mount '/odm' (Invalid argument)
- 'Failed to mount '/product' (Invalid argument)
- Failed to mount '/vendor' (Invalid argument)

So, obviously your latest recovery is not backward compatible with twrp-3.6.2_12-1 : not a big deal as I just wanted to test this possibility.

So to avoid a soft brick or a bootloop I tried to recover from my latest CVL2 backup but the restore stops at the "Product" partition with a failed message ! I unticked the "Product partition to see if I could go any further but the restore stops at the "System" partition again with the same Failed message again. Grrr

Just to be sure, I rebooted into Download mode and I re-installed your latest recovery again with PC Odin and when back into TWRP I tried to recover from my latest CVL2 backup with the same result...

At the very end, I flashed back the latest patched firmware with BL, patched AP, CP and HOME CSC files to be sure I wouldn't lose my apps and data. And finally I installed your latest recovery.

I don't know if something can be done better but I will wait after the next update to see how your recovery behave with the actual CVL2 backup... ^^

Good day

 

[BlackMesa123]

Probably because nobody even tried to do a full restore before and tested your twrp in different ways ???

If you did you wouldn't have asked and awaited after my recovery.log file... x)

Anyway, I installed your latest recovery and it seems to work fine in some ways... ^^

I did a full backup of CVL2 at 3 PM then a full restore and it was ok.

Then I tried to recover a CVI6 backup dated from Nov. 30th and I got 3 errors :
- "Failed to mount '/odm' (Invalid argument)
- 'Failed to mount '/product' (Invalid argument)
- Failed to mount '/vendor' (Invalid argument)

So, obviously your latest recovery is not backward compatible with twrp-3.6.2_12-1 : not a big deal as I just wanted to test this possibility.

So to avoid a soft brick or a bootloop I tried to recover from my latest CVL2 backup but the restore stops at the "Product" partition with a failed message ! I unticked the "Product partition to see if I could go any further but the restore stops at the "System" partition again with the same Failed message again. Grrr

Just to be sure, I rebooted into Download mode and I re-installed your latest recovery again with PC Odin and when back into TWRP I tried to recover from my latest CVL2 backup with the same result...

At the very end, I flashed back the latest patched firmware with BL, patched AP, CP and HOME CSC files to be sure I wouldn't lose my apps and data. And finally I installed your latest recovery.

I don't know if something can be done better but I will wait after the next update to see how your recovery behave with the actual CVL2 backup... ^^

Good day

As I already explained you, this has nothing to do with the recovery itself but with the dynamic partitions scheme: the super.img partition metadata might differ between each firmware meaning you might not be able to restore firmware builds with a different metadata than the original one (unless you manually edit the metadata with lptools). Again, instead of backing up each partition individually, backup the whole super partition (which contains system/odm/vendor and product)

 

[Essentrix]

Sorry to clarify,

Is there any way to get TWRP decrypt to work yet without disabling lockscreen protection and losing fingerprints?

 

[BlackMesa123]

Sorry to clarify,

Is there any way to get TWRP decrypt to work yet without disabling lockscreen protection and losing fingerprints?

No, data decrypt with PIN/password is still broken on One UI, however it should work just fine on AOSP.

 

[Arobase404]

As I already explained you, this has nothing to do with the recovery itself but with the dynamic partitions scheme: the super.img partition metadata might differ between each firmware meaning you might not be able to restore firmware builds with a different metadata than the original one (unless you manually edit the metadata with lptools). Again, instead of backing up each partition individually, backup the whole super partition (which contains system/odm/vendor and product)

Your recovery is indeed not working !!!

I installed another firmware from Australia on my french phone, then re-installed your TWRP and I tried to recover my previous backup (CVL2) with the super partition but the operation failed with error message in regard with ODM, VENDOR and another partition I can't remember (probably the Product partition)...

I couldn't even restore my data partition due to an error 255. So I lost all my apps, data and my settings !

So I had to re-install a patched firmware with PC odin.

Thanks to Smartswitch I recover most of my apps, my data and some settings but lost some others. So I has to rebuild most of my settings and has to re-install some apps...

I just wonder if you really own yourself this A528B phone to test yourself your project ??? ^^

From what I have seen with your twrp-6 version each backup folder contains 50 elements when with your twrp-7.x.x versions there are only 46 elements. I don't know if this is relevant but whatever your TWRP is really NOT WORKING !

 

[ShaDisNX255]

I installed another firmware from Australia on my french phone, then re-installed your TWRP and I tried to recover my previous backup (CVL2) with the super partition but the operation failed with error message in regard with ODM, VENDOR and another partition I can't remember (probably the Product partition)...

Why are you trying to restore a very old backup when you've had problems over and over again restoring it? Could it be that your backup is corrupted beyond repair? Every time I've seen you post you continue to report that the same backup keeps failing the restore. Quite honestly I would have deduced by now that the specific backup is broken...

I'm just surprise nobody even truly tested it doing a full backup and then trying to restore the same backup and as nobody reported theses issues !!!

I've fully backed up and tested countless times when making my ROMs. I find it hard to believe you can't even do it once. Matter of fact, many people have done it over and over. You're the only one reporting a problem. Have you considered the possibility that it is you who is doing it wrong?

As @BlackMesa123 already pointed it out to you:

Backup/restoring logical partitions might not work correctly due to how this feature works. Try to backup the whole super partition instead of each partition individually (system/vendor/odm/product)

Why are you backing up vendor separately? The OP has already mentioned that it might not work correctly due to how dynamic partitions work (which is a thing on devices from 2020 or newer) then why are you still trying to backup/restore vendor separately?

 

[BlackMesa123]

Your recovery is indeed not working !!!

I installed another firmware from Australia on my french phone, then re-installed your TWRP and I tried to recover my previous backup (CVL2) with the super partition but the operation failed with error message in regard with ODM, VENDOR and another partition I can't remember (probably the Product partition)...

I couldn't even restore my data partition due to an error 255. So I lost all my apps, data and my settings !

So I had to re-install a patched firmware with PC odin.

Thanks to Smartswitch I recover most of my apps, my data and some settings but lost some others. So I has to rebuild most of my settings and has to re-install some apps...

I just wonder if you really own yourself this A528B phone to test yourself your project ??? ^^

From what I have seen with your twrp-6 version each backup folder contains 50 elements when with your twrp-7.x.x versions there are only 46 elements. I don't know if this is relevant but whatever your TWRP is really NOT WORKING !

I'm sorry but I've had enough of your arrogance and insulting people's (and my) intelligence. Why would I work on a device I don't even own, and release stuff that I didn't even test and is completely broken? Also, don't you think other people would've reported the same exact issues after 5 months since this recovery has been released? If you really want my help please stop being a jerk and instead, like I've been saying from quite a few time already, provide useful informations (logs, exact steps you did and whatever is necessary) to understand what's wrong in your phone, I don't see how I can figure out stuff when you don't even know what you are doing ("another partition I can't remember", lol). The fact that me and other people in the community uses and tests stuff doesn't mean it will be free of issues/bugs (such as the /vendor ro bug), so kindly remember this is stuff we're making for free and that costs us money and precious time we could use to do other stuff.

 

[Arobase404]

Why are you trying to restore a very old backup when you've had problems over and over again restoring it? Could it be that your backup is corrupted beyond repair? Every time I've seen you post you continue to report that the same backup keeps failing the restore. Quite honestly I would have deduced by now that the specific backup is broken...

I guess you didn't read or forgot my previous posts as I said I tried to restore different backups (at least CVI6 and and DVL2) made with the different versions of TWRP ! I even tested the backups with "Enable Digest Verification of Backup Files" to be sure the backups were not corrupted and apparently there were no problem unless there is also a problem with this verification function... From what I noticed these issues occur only since TWRP 3.7.0_xxx and the release of Android 13 !

I've fully backed up and tested countless times when making my ROMs. I find it hard to believe you can't even do it once. Matter of fact, many people have done it over and over. You're the only one reporting a problem. Have you considered the possibility that it is you who is doing it wrong?

Backing up is not a problem but the problem is with restoring the backups !!!
Then, how can you say "Matter of fact, many people have done it over and over." when I haven't seen anyone response from any one except at least from 2 persons who agreed with me and more specifically with official Samsung firmwares and not with custom ROMs as with you ???... ^^

I haven't seen any positive feedback from other users since now and you are the sole guy to say you haven't got any issues, or pretended...

More over I have been using TWRP with 4 different Samsung devices for a dozen of years with no problem since now, so I know how this kind of custom recovery works !!!

As @BlackMesa123 already pointed it out to you:

Why are you backing up vendor separately? The OP has already mentioned that it might not work correctly due to how dynamic partitions work (which is a thing on devices from 2020 or newer) then why are you still trying to backup/restore vendor separately?

Have you red correctly my last post as I said I used the "Super" partition as mentioned by BlackMesa123, but this partition does not include the data partition !!!!!!!!!!!
Anyhow, backing up and restoring only the Super partition is NOT a standard in the way TWRP should work...

I'm also using TWRP with my Galaxy Tab S6 -SM-T860) with Android 12L dated October 2022) and unless this version is not using dynamic partitions I have not encounter any issues from now !

 

[BlackMesa123]

Anyhow, backing up and restoring only the Super partition is NOT a standard in the way TWRP should work...

I'm also using TWRP with my Galaxy Tab S6 -SM-T860) with Android 12L dated October 2022) and unless this version is not using dynamic partitions I have not encounter any issues from now !

Yes it is. As I already explained you multiple times, our device has dynamic partitions since it shipped with Android 11. System/Vendor/Odm/Product Image slots are custom implemented in the device tree to ease flashing custom img's in those (ex. flashing GSI's, custom vendor etc.), but those partitions are ""virtual"" meaning they do not exist and are actually contained inside the super.img partition. The deal is that each partition is defined in the super.img metadata and has a fixed size, meaning that if stock super.img metadata differs you will encounter issues when trying to restore a backup of each partitions if the size is bigger than the one defined in the super.img metadata. This is the reason why you need to backup/restore only super.img rather than each logical partition individually.

Tab S6 is a device that has no dynamic partitions since it shipped with an older version of Android, that's why you have no issues there when manipulating those.

 

[Arobase404]

I'm sorry but I've had enough of your arrogance and insulting people's (and my) intelligence. Why would I work on a device I don't even own, and release stuff that I didn't even test and is completely broken? Also, don't you think other people would've reported the same exact issues after 5 months since this recovery has been released? If you really want my help please stop being a jerk and instead, like I've been saying from quite a few time already, provide useful informations (logs, exact steps you did and whatever is necessary) to understand what's wrong in your phone, I don't see how I can figure out stuff when you don't even know what you are doing ("another partition I can't remember", lol). The fact that me and other people in the community uses and tests stuff doesn't mean it will be free of issues/bugs (such as the /vendor ro bug), so kindly remember this is stuff we're making for free and that costs us money and precious time we could use to do other stuff.

If you watch at this thread history I'm probably the only guy to send precise feedback with your recovery and I spent so many hours on it and specifically since your TWRP 3.7.0_xxx versions so I am myself tired spending hours to rebuild completely my system (3 times !!!!!) !!!

I already sent you a recovery log but as I said I was so despaired with this tool I was not in the mood to create a new log and that's why I wondered if you really own the same phone... but apparently I was wrong.
But at least you rebuilt a new version of TWRP based on MY previous recovery.log file... ^^

At least 2 other persons agreed with me about the same issues even though they didn't give more information about the issues !!!

Apparently with your 3.6.0_xxx version there were no such issues since the release of Android 13.

 

[BlackMesa123]

If you watch at this thread history I'm probably the only guy to send precise feedback with your recovery and I spent so many hours on it and specifically since your TWRP 3.7.0_xxx versions so I am myself tired spending hours to rebuild completely my system (3 times !!!!!) !!!

I already sent you a recovery log but as I said I was so despaired with this tool I was not in the mood to create a new log and that's why I wondered if you really own the same phone... but apparently I was wrong.
But at least you rebuilt a new version of TWRP based on MY previous recovery.log file... ^^

At least 2 other persons agreed with me about the same issues even though they didn't give more information about the issues !!!

Apparently with your 3.6.0_xxx version there were no such issues since the release of Android 13.

The 3.6.2 builds you are talking about were built from the upstream TWRP branch by myself (https://github.com/TeamWin/android_bootable_recovery/tree/d56818f5af1807d388657ba60b0900c79bcbc05b), so the codebase is the same as the one in the official builds (3.7.0). The only issues me and the testers team (just because you don't see anyone here in XDA doesn't means no one is testing/debugging it :3) found was with decryption which was fixed in 3.7.0-2. I'm thankful to anybody who shows support and helps me making my projects better even by just reporting stuff (including you ofc), but I can't stand seeing people only complaining about stuff and just talks s**t.

 

[Arobase404]

Yes it is. As I already explained you multiple times, our device has dynamic partitions since it shipped with Android 11. System/Vendor/Odm/Product Image slots are custom implemented in the device tree to ease flashing custom img's in those (ex. flashing GSI's, custom vendor etc.), but those partitions are ""virtual"" meaning they do not exist and are actually contained inside the super.img partition. The deal is that each partition is defined in the super.img metadata and has a fixed size, meaning that if stock super.img metadata differs you will encounter issues when trying to restore a backup of each partitions if the size is bigger than the one defined in the super.img metadata. This is the reason why you need to backup/restore only super.img rather than each logical partition individually.

Tab S6 is a device that has no dynamic partitions since it shipped with an older version of Android, that's why you have no issues there when manipulating those.

Isn't there a contradiction when you say "our device has dynamic partitions since it shipped with Android 11" and with "Tab S6 is a device that has no dynamic partitions since it shipped with an older version of Android" when I said my Tab S6 has Android 12L dated October 2022 ???

Then as I said I tried to recover from the Super partition only has you stated previously with the detailed. Finally, what is the relationship between the Super partition and the Data partition ??? ^^

Then I'm not sure the "System" or "EFS" partitions are included in the "Super" partition, but maybe I'm wrong ?

If only I was able to recover from my Data partition I wouldn't be in such a bad mood as I wouldn't waist myself so many hours to rebuild my all system (I mean my working system) as this is the third time I had to do it...

 

[ShaDisNX255]

I guess you didn't read or forgot my previous posts as I said I tried to restore different backups (at least CVI6 and and DVL2) made with the different versions of TWRP ! I even tested the backups with "Enable Digest Verification of Backup Files" to be sure the backups were not corrupted and apparently there were no problem unless there is also a problem with this verification function... From what I noticed these issues occur only since TWRP 3.7.0_xxx and the release of Android 13 !

Well you're not even providing that precise info tbh. You're saying you have a problem with this fw, but not exactly what you're backing up

Backing up is not a problem but the problem is with restoring the backups !!!
Then, how can you say "Matter of fact, many people have done it over and over." when I haven't seen anyone response from any one except at least from 2 persons who agreed with me and more specifically with official Samsung firmwares and not with custom ROMs as with you ???... ^^

I haven't seen any positive feedback from other users since now and you are the sole guy to say you haven't got any issues, or pretended...

More over I have been using TWRP with 4 different Samsung devices for a dozen of years with no problem since now, so I know how this kind of custom recovery works !!!

If you knew anything about development you'd know that Samsung changed things year over year. First treble, then dynamic partitions, then GKI, etc...
You cannot imply one thing will work the same from obsolete devices in current devices




But just to be absolutely clear I'll give you instructions on what you need for a full backup:

- Data: Back this up to save your downloaded apps and current OS settings. Data is where the OS stores this info
- Super: Back this up for your current ROM. Super includes system, vendor, odm and product.
- Boot: Back this up to save your current kernel
- EFS: Saves your current EFS stuff. It's important to save this at least once in your life
- Vendor Boot: This is where your kernel takes its modules (?) I won't pretend I know about kernel development, so only save this if you're going to mess with kernels

I think that's all you need for a full backup, no need for anything else

Also, just FYI because dynamic partitions you can't properly mount it after you mess with it. So, if you ever restore Super be sure to reboot (either to recovery or to system) before trying to do anything with it (like restoring vendor individually for example)

 

[BlackMesa123]

Isn't there a contradiction when you say "our device has dynamic partitions since it shipped with Android 11" and with "Tab S6 is a device that has no dynamic partitions since it shipped with an older version of Android" when I said my Tab S6 has Android 12L dated October 2022 ???

I'm talking about the shipped OS version, not the current version, Tab S6 shipped with Android 9 so it has no dynamic partition. This is a low level feature that can't be implemented via OTA updates since it would require to repartition the whole device.

Then as I said I tried to recover from the Super partition only has you stated previously with the detailed. Finally, what is the relationship between the Super partition and the Data partition ??? ^^

Then I'm not sure the "System" or "EFS" partitions are included in the "Super" partition, but maybe I'm wrong ?

As I already told you the super.img partition only contains system, odm, vendor and product. All the other partitions are separated.

 

[Arobase404]

The 3.6.2 builds you are talking about were built from the upstream TWRP branch by myself (https://github.com/TeamWin/android_bootable_recovery/tree/d56818f5af1807d388657ba60b0900c79bcbc05b), so the codebase is the same as the one in the official builds (3.7.0). The only issues me and the testers team (just because you don't see anyone here in XDA doesn't means no one is testing/debugging it :3) found was with decryption which was fixed in 3.7.0-2. I'm thankful to anybody who shows support and helps me making my projects better even by just reporting stuff (including you ofc), but I can't stand seeing people only complaining about stuff and just talks s**t.

Sorry man

I'm not complaining or "talks s**t" when I'm just reporting objective issues with your TWRP 3.7.0_xxx versions !!!