[RECOVERY][UNOFFICIAL][DEPRECATED] - (1/16/22) TeamWin Recovery Project [BRAMBLE]

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Kal-El7

Senior Member
Nov 6, 2012
1,057
784
Hey team,

I have an update and follow-up inquiries. As per the OP's instructions, I followed everything to a T and it all worked out. I was able to create my first Nandroid just like I used to do in TWRP for years on other devices. This worked the same. The restoration of the Nandroid worked the same as well and, as OP instructed, you must reboot immediately upon TWRP's restoration and TWRP's rebooting you into your home environment. Meaning, within the TWRP wizard, once the Nandroid is restored, TWRP asks if I want for it to reboot into my phone to which I say yes. Upon doing so, things look different. So you manually reboot again immediate and then things look like how they were. And that's where I get confused.

Although things look like how they were when I initially created the Nandroid, my DCIM camera folder retained data that I created just yesterday - new photos and videos. I was hoping that the Nandroid would restore my backup image that essentially erases current data and replaces my phone's environment with what's archived within the Nandroid, ideally freeing up space again. Furthermore, I see within my restored environment a folder titled "TWRP" and it's occupying 15GB within a subfolder titled "BACKUPS". I did not have that before nor did I create a Nandroid of that, as far as I can recall.

Please allow me to kindly inquire what this all means. The DCIM folder retained data I created yesterday. There's a TWRP folder taking up newly occupied 15 gigabytes worth of space. If I look harder, I may identify other inquiries. Root access was preserved and other apps retained their data, oddly.

I will do a factory reset on my Google Pixel 4a5G (again), start from scratch and try this all over again this morning and report back. Meanwhile, if you guys have seen the above behavior, any feedback you may provide is greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Fam.

p.s. I used Swift Backup to back up and restore my prior apps with data, like Google Duo's long chat history with my family which does not typically provide chat backups akin to WhatsApp, etc. The restoration of these apps with their preserved data worked well.
 

DvineLord

Senior Member
Aug 29, 2010
1,443
401
AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III
AT&T HTC One X
@Kal-El7
The nandroid backup has to be stored somewhere that's why you have the 15 GB folder in /TWRP/BACKUPS. Nandroids backup the partitions you select. so if you backed up /boot /data /system etc and restore those the phone will be exactly the same as before at the time of creation. Also Nandroid restores don't delete /data/media therefore you would still have your internal storage files like DCIM.

You could manually wipe /data/media and /data and just restore /boot /system and whatever else needs to be backed up and restored for this device. My bramble is still stock until it's paid off.
 
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Kal-El7

Senior Member
Nov 6, 2012
1,057
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@Kal-El7
The nandroid backup has to be stored somewhere that's why you have the 15 GB folder in /TWRP/BACKUPS. Nandroids backup the partitions you select. so if you backed up /boot /data /system etc and restore those the phone will be exactly the same as before at the time of creation. Also Nandroid restores don't delete /data/media therefore you would still have your internal storage files like DCIM.

You could manually wipe /data/media and /data and just restore /boot /system and whatever else needs to be backed up and restored for this device. My bramble is still stock until it's paid off.

Thank you for chiming in. I apologize for not providing better details. I created the Nandroid onto my external microSDXC card initially. This is how I've done Nandroids for years - onto an external microSDXC - and that's what I did this time around for my first Nandroid of my Bramble phone. The attached photo you see here are the only two things I elected to back up.

I elected to test the restoration of the Nandroid. upon doing so, I was able to boot back into my home environment. I noticed that after I had created the Nandroid, somehow a TWRP folder was created in my internal storage and had around 15GB's worth of stuff.

I took the Google Factory Image for my phone and I flashed it onto my phone, making it new out-of-the-retail-box. I retraced all my steps. Oddly enough, I created another Nandroid again, this time of my phone having been reverted back to factory, and this time around there is no TWRP folder with data in it. I do see the TWRP folder in the internal storage, but it's empty. Meanwhile, my TWRP folder on my external microSDXC card does, in fact, have data in it (the nandroid).

Odd.

So restoring a nandroid from an external SD card does not wipe out the onboard data with that of the Nandroid's data that was backed up?

Thanks again!
TWRP backup settings.jpg
 

mn1968

Senior Member
Nov 7, 2011
596
161
I created the Nandroid onto my external microSDXC card initially. This is how I've done Nandroids for years - onto an external microSDXC - and that's what I did this time around for my first Nandroid of my Bramble phone.
The 4a 5g (bramble) does not have a SD slot so how did you back it up to an external micro SD card?
 
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Kal-El7

Senior Member
Nov 6, 2012
1,057
784
The 4a 5g (bramble) does not have a SD slot so how did you back it up to an external micro SD card?
My friend, this here is magic. I love this thing. That's how I did it. It works flawless and the Nandroid restore worked the first time around. You can connect your Bramble to any external storage. I can connect to almost anything and it works right out of the gate.

I kept my SD card as NTFS, though. No Pixel device recognizes NTSF partitions. I use another app for that from the Google Play Store that works wonders for me called "exFAT/NTFS for USB by Paragon". I paid for it to get the NTFS access, but it also does exFAT and a bunch of stuff. All-in-all, I use microSDXC on my Pixel all the time.

In order to make a full Nandroid with this combo, the microSDXC must not be formatted to FAT32 or else it won't work. File size write limitations won't allow it. Use exFAT. This can be achieved via sticking the microSDXC into a computer and formatting it there or into a Samsung phone and let Samsung format it, which usually is exFAT.

Hope this helps.
UGreen SD to Type C.jpg
 
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itsnotshaden

New member
Sep 26, 2020
4
0
I'm currently running lineage os 19 with lineage recovery but this TWRP img gets stuck on the twrp loading screen and doesn't boot, it also prevents me from rebooting into my currently installed os unless I reflash the os img. Any idea what I can do to make it boot?
 

itsnotshaden

New member
Sep 26, 2020
4
0
I'm currently running lineage os 19 with lineage recovery but this TWRP img gets stuck on the twrp loading screen and doesn't boot, it also prevents me from rebooting into my currently installed os unless I reflash the os img. Any idea what I can do to make it boot?
I did correct my mistake and instead of flashing it I just used "fastboot boot name.img" but its still just stuck on the twrp loading screen. Help would be very appreciated ...
 
D

Deleted member 6200352

Guest
My friend, this here is magic. I love this thing. That's how I did it. It works flawless and the Nandroid restore worked the first time around. You can connect your Bramble to any external storage. I can connect to almost anything and it works right out of the gate.

I kept my SD card as NTFS, though. No Pixel device recognizes NTSF partitions. I use another app for that from the Google Play Store that works wonders for me called "exFAT/NTFS for USB by Paragon". I paid for it to get the NTFS access, but it also does exFAT and a bunch of stuff. All-in-all, I use microSDXC on my Pixel all the time.

In order to make a full Nandroid with this combo, the microSDXC must not be formatted to FAT32 or else it won't work. File size write limitations won't allow it. Use exFAT. This can be achieved via sticking the microSDXC into a computer and formatting it there or into a Samsung phone and let Samsung format it, which usually is exFAT.

Hope this helps.
View attachment 5728781
Brilliant.I'm gonna do this myself too. Not only for TWRP but also to do full partition backups instead of having to use net cat and busybox/toybox over the usb between 2 windows. Thank you!
 

JoshuaDoes

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2015
132
189
23
Chester, South Carolina
joshuadoes.com
I apologize for having not maintained this thread, I've had much in life to deal with and other projects I had to tend to.

Back in September, someone made a donation to see about getting a new build working but they were never able to confirm if it worked as they had things in life come up as well, and I promptly forgot about it. Below is that build, and I'd like to know if it works for any of you, or if I need to try to produce an updated build since it's been almost 3 months. My Pixel 4a5G is currently out of commission, and although I can't promise getting it fixed unless enough people donated, any donations at all would surely help so that I can try to, and at least maintain some of my focus here.

Try the twrp-12.1 build from September 28th, 2022 here: [REMOVED by me, fails to boot]
Boot it with `fastboot boot boot.img` and then follow the usual instructions to actually install TWRP onto your device. If all goes well, rebooting to recovery should bring you back to TWRP! If any of this fails, tell me your exact steps you took to reach the point you're at and tell me exactly what you see, or I won't be able to help figure out what went wrong.
 
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lovebats

New member
Dec 17, 2022
3
2
I apologize for having not maintained this thread, I've had much in life to deal with and other projects I had to tend to.

Back in September, someone made a donation to see about getting a new build working but they were never able to confirm if it worked as they had things in life come up as well, and I promptly forgot about it. Below is that build, and I'd like to know if it works for any of you, or if I need to try to produce an updated build since it's been almost 3 months. My Pixel 4a5G is currently out of commission, and although I can't promise getting it fixed unless enough people donated, any donations at all would surely help so that I can try to, and at least maintain some of my focus here.

Try the twrp-12.1 build from September 28th, 2022 here: https://files.joshuadoes.com/TWRP/twrp-12.1/bramble/boot.img
Boot it with `fastboot boot boot.img` and then follow the usual instructions to actually install TWRP onto your device. If all goes well, rebooting to recovery should bring you back to TWRP! If any of this fails, tell me your exact steps you took to reach the point you're at and tell me exactly what you see, or I won't be able to help figure out what went wrong.
Sadly it would seem this build does not boot on my device. Doesn't even get to the TWRP loading screen like the old build froze on.
 

theg00dguy

Member
Apr 7, 2022
12
1
I apologize for having not maintained this thread, I've had much in life to deal with and other projects I had to tend to.

Back in September, someone made a donation to see about getting a new build working but they were never able to confirm if it worked as they had things in life come up as well, and I promptly forgot about it. Below is that build, and I'd like to know if it works for any of you, or if I need to try to produce an updated build since it's been almost 3 months. My Pixel 4a5G is currently out of commission, and although I can't promise getting it fixed unless enough people donated, any donations at all would surely help so that I can try to, and at least maintain some of my focus here.

Try the twrp-12.1 build from September 28th, 2022 here: https://files.joshuadoes.com/TWRP/twrp-12.1/bramble/boot.img
Boot it with `fastboot boot boot.img` and then follow the usual instructions to actually install TWRP onto your device. If all goes well, rebooting to recovery should bring you back to TWRP! If any of this fails, tell me your exact steps you took to reach the point you're at and tell me exactly what you see, or I won't be able to help figure out what went wrong.

Hi,

I have recently got myself a Pixel 4a 5G. I used to have a Pixel 2, but wanted 5G capability.

I had Android 8 on the Pixel 2 and could temporarily boot TWRP using "fastboot boot twrp-3.3.0-0-walleye.img". It was great. I could easily backup my phone when ever I wanted to.

I just tried this on my 4a 5G after unlocking the bootloader, but the temporary boot using "fastboot boot boot.img" and TWRP that JoshuaDoes has kindly built, doesn't boot. Am I doing something wrong, or is it simply not possible to temporarily boot TWRP this way on the 4a 5G?

Many thanks.
 

J0kker

Senior Member
Mar 15, 2012
442
202
Amazon Fire TV
Google Pixel 4a 5G
Hi,

I have recently got myself a Pixel 4a 5G. I used to have a Pixel 2, but wanted 5G capability.

I had Android 8 on the Pixel 2 and could temporarily boot TWRP using "fastboot boot twrp-3.3.0-0-walleye.img". It was great. I could easily backup my phone when ever I wanted to.

I just tried this on my 4a 5G after unlocking the bootloader, but the temporary boot using "fastboot boot boot.img" and TWRP that JoshuaDoes has kindly built, doesn't boot. Am I doing something wrong, or is it simply not possible to temporarily boot TWRP this way on the 4a 5G?

Many thanks.
May I ask if you're running Android 13 ?
It seems to me the twrp is built for A12.1 so that could be a point.
I'll try to boot it in the next hours, as I'm still on A12.1, we'll see how it goes 👍
 

J0kker

Senior Member
Mar 15, 2012
442
202
Amazon Fire TV
Google Pixel 4a 5G
So, first of all thanks for this update (y)
But i must confirm what previous posts told, seems like this latest build doesn't boot, even on Android 12.1.
Twrp-3.6.0_11-0.1-bramble boots fine, but latest automatically reboots to android :cry:
 

Voodoojonny

Senior Member
Dec 17, 2015
842
347
Dortmund
Hi,

I have recently got myself a Pixel 4a 5G. I used to have a Pixel 2, but wanted 5G capability.

I had Android 8 on the Pixel 2 and could temporarily boot TWRP using "fastboot boot twrp-3.3.0-0-walleye.img". It was great. I could easily backup my phone when ever I wanted to.

I just tried this on my 4a 5G after unlocking the bootloader, but the temporary boot using "fastboot boot boot.img" and TWRP that JoshuaDoes has kindly built, doesn't boot. Am I doing something wrong, or is it simply not possible to temporarily boot TWRP this way on the 4a 5G?

Many thanks.
This boots only under Android 11...
 

theg00dguy

Member
Apr 7, 2022
12
1
Hi,

I need to add a little more information, and correct some factual errors. I want to be sure that I haven't led anyone astray with inaccurate info.

* I said earlier that I tried booting my Android 12, Build SQ3A.220705.003.A1 using the twrp-12.1 build from JoshuaDoes. This was wrong. The phone I tried it on was Android 12 Build SQ1A.220105.002. Apologies.
This phone is COMPLETELY fresh with minimum configuration, no network connectivity and no security passcode/pattern.

* I subsequently tried booting the above phone with "Twrp-3.6.0_11-0.1-bramble". It boots into recovery happily :). I was able to create and restore a backup.

If there's anything that anyone would like me to try that might help further development, I'm happy to try. Please bear in mind I'm no expert. I have this "clean" phone for about another week or two before it goes back to it's owner.
 

JoshuaDoes

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2015
132
189
23
Chester, South Carolina
joshuadoes.com
Hi,

I need to add a little more information, and correct some factual errors. I want to be sure that I haven't led anyone astray with inaccurate info.

* I said earlier that I tried booting my Android 12, Build SQ3A.220705.003.A1 using the twrp-12.1 build from JoshuaDoes. This was wrong. The phone I tried it on was Android 12 Build SQ1A.220105.002. Apologies.
This phone is COMPLETELY fresh with minimum configuration, no network connectivity and no security passcode/pattern.

* I subsequently tried booting the above phone with "Twrp-3.6.0_11-0.1-bramble". It boots into recovery happily :). I was able to create and restore a backup.

If there's anything that anyone would like me to try that might help further development, I'm happy to try. Please bear in mind I'm no expert. I have this "clean" phone for about another week or two before it goes back to it's owner.
Thank y'all for testing! I can't test myself unfortunately given the situation, but if the original build listed in the main XDA thread is working, please continue using it for now until I can find the free time to get a tester to help me - I already got a few who can help in real time, I'm just caught up with work and life right now and some other Android projects :p
 

theg00dguy

Member
Apr 7, 2022
12
1
Hi,

I want to post some strange new information/behaviour, but first I think I need to give you a quick summary of what I'm trying to achieve:

I bought a Pixel 4a5G to replace my Pixel 2. Call this 4a5G phone AAA. The first thing I did was to check for a version of TWRP for AAA. There wasn't one so, foolishly, I decided there no no need to unlock the bootloader. A year down the line JoshuaDoes has worked some magic and produced a version of TWRP, but if I unlock the bootloader now, my phone goes back to factory settings and I lose all my setup.

A couple of months ago I recommended the 4a5G to a friend and he bought one. He hadn't started using it so I have borrowed the from him to see if the JoshuaDoes TWRP will work. Call this phone ZZZ.

AAA has Android build SQ3A.220705.003.A1, and ZZZ has Android build SQ1A.220105.002.

I unlocked the bootloader on ZZZ and tried the very latest JoshuaDoes TWRP. As I said earlier this does not boot. I then tried the earlier version (Twrp-3.6.0_11-0.1-bramble). It boot and I could create and restore backup on ZZZ.

I updated ZZZ to Android build SQ3A.220705.003.A1 and using in-built transfer-my-old-phone procedure, I copied everything from AAA to ZZZ, or least as much as Android would allow. I wanted ZZZ to look and behave EXACTLY like AAA, so I downgraded many of the apps that Android had automatically updated during the transfer, and I changed many settings to my preferences. Phone ZZZ now looked and behaved like AAA but with no password/pattern security.

The aim of all this was to then create a backup of ZZZ, unlock the bootloader on AAA, boot into TWRP on AAA and restore the ZZZ backup to AAA. Remember that both phones are now on build SQ3A.220705.003.A1. The backup of ZZZ failed :(. I have attached a photo of the fail-screen. When I restarted the phone, all the data had been wiped, but the apps were still there.

I then put ZZZ back to factory settings (no network, no security, build SQ3A.220705.003.A1) and thought "let me try a backup again". It worked! It happily created a backup.

It would seem that something in the my configuration caused the failure, but what? What I'm thinking to do now is to do the Andriod data/app transfer and try backing up again before I mess with settings.

Has anybody any thoughts?

Many thanks.
 

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theg00dguy

Member
Apr 7, 2022
12
1
Many varied trails - backups fail :(

ZZZ - SQ3A.220705.003.A1
  • wipe & reset
  • USB debugging enable
  • data transfer from AAA
  • restore Nova Launcher backup from AAA onto ZZZ
  • Backup Fails
ZZZ - SQ3A.220705.003.A1
  • wipe & reset
  • USB debugging enable
  • data transfer from AAA
  • No Nova Launcher
  • Backup "succeeds"
  • backup files exist when I check using TWRP file manager
  • backup files have disappeared when andriod is restared
  • go straight back into TWRP. Files have indeed gone.
  • Try backup again.
  • Backup fails
ZZZ -
  • Downgrade ZZZ back to SQ1A.220105.002
  • wipe & reset
  • data transfer from AAA
  • Backup fails
I hope this info helps someone.
 

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  • 27
    THIS THREAD IS DEPRECATED! My Pixel 4a5G has needed repair for almost a couple of years now, and I've been too poor to do so. I need a new logic board and a new display. Until then, I cannot commit to creating TWRP updates for this device, so if anyone else would like to take over I'd be more than happy to let you!

    Essentially copy/paste from the official TWRP for redfin thread, except I've made my own unofficial build for the Pixel 4a5G that in my own testing appears to be on feature parity with the official build for the Pixel 5! There are reports of the Pixel 5 build not working on devices with Android 12 and a PIN set at this time, so I advise against using this build if you've upgraded to Android 12 on your Pixel 4a5G and require having a PIN for your day to day.

    I've decided I might as well try to maintain the device since no one else is doing so yet. I've pushed the trees I've modified to GitHub so y'all can keep track and maybe help out before I submit them for official status.

    device/google/bramble: https://github.com/JoshuaDoes/twrp_device_google_bramble
    device/google/redbull: https://github.com/JoshuaDoes/twrp_device_google_redbull

    You can find the latest unofficial test build here: twrp-3.6.0_11-0.1-bramble.img
    Boot it with `fastboot boot twrp-3.6.0_11-0.x-bramble.img`, decrypt your data if necessary, then install it permanently by navigating to `Advanced -> Flash Current TWRP`. Test by navigating to `Reboot -> Recovery` and you should reboot back into TWRP!

    Changelog
    11-0.1 (1/16/2022):
    - Fix missing libion dependency, which appears to allow booting and installing TWRP if A12 is installed
    11-0 (1/13/2022):
    - Sync bramble with patches from redfin

    You can find the historical builds here (but please don't use them): https://files.joshuadoes.com/TWRP/twrp-11/bramble/
    3
    awesome. Only things I notice not there (and in no way complaining as its a WIP) is encryption option, and date seems to be stuck on 1970 and time way off despite changing time zone. But that's minor right now. The fact you got this going is no small feat. I am so glad I got a 4a5g (5/5a would have been fine too) and not a 6. You should put a donate link so we can buy you some coffee or weed or something, lol. Again great job. Feel free to hit me up if you need me to destroy my phone for you (testng). I got a dd backup, and now twrp backup so between all of that and the alfabet of partitions I should be able to restore from just about anything short of EDL crap out and I'm sure if that's not resolvable by now, it will only be a matter of time.
    Encrypting backups? I didn't realize that was missing so I'll look into it too, but yeah the date is stuck which screws with file and backup times and I def need to fix that. XDA forbids me from putting a donation link in a post, however if you go to my profile and expand the info details about me it lists my PayPal email there and I'd super appreciate it! Because lemme tell ya, it took energy drinks and some good highs to do most of my Android work and thankfully this TWRP build only took me a few hours to tear into lmao. If you got a Discord I'm most active there as well as the Pixel 4a5G/5 Telegram (I can get a link to all if you've got them), and having extra testers for some of what I wanna do would be phenomenal as well! And we're Qualcomm, there's a flash tool out there somewhere for the worst of board states ;)

    Sorry for the wall of text lmao, I appreciate the kind words for sure and I'm likely gonna try maintaining this device officially for TWRP too
    2
    Been waiting so long for this, thanks a bunch, i'm running lineageos 18.1 so i hope it will work (probably disable automatic updates flashing ?).
    Automatic OTAs will replace TWRP, so disable automatic OTAs and download them with the Updater app whenever you get a notification, then install using TWRP (/data/lineageos_updates) and check "Install TWRP after flashing" before swiping to install (or go to Advanced -> Install Current TWRP before rebooting). Easy as that!

    But I may make a Magisk module to handle all this since Magisk has a survival script that works. It'd be a oneshot service that caches the latest copy of TWRP and installs it each boot, so you'd only have to deal with one update cycle that has Lineage Recovery installed.
    2
    D
    Deleted member 6200352
    awesome. Only things I notice not there (and in no way complaining as its a WIP) is encryption option, and date seems to be stuck on 1970 and time way off despite changing time zone. But that's minor right now. The fact you got this going is no small feat. I am so glad I got a 4a5g (5/5a would have been fine too) and not a 6. You should put a donate link so we can buy you some coffee or weed or something, lol. Again great job. Feel free to hit me up if you need me to destroy my phone for you (testng). I got a dd backup, and now twrp backup so between all of that and the alfabet of partitions I should be able to restore from just about anything short of EDL crap out and I'm sure if that's not resolvable by now, it will only be a matter of time.
    2
    Hello. Link is for ver. 0. Ver 0.1 returns 403 Forbidden. Can you please fix it?
    I fixed the link for v0.1!