There is apparently no way to restore a Nandroid backup under OOS 9.0.4...???

[MetroWestMA]

So I did what I thought was a routine thing, trying to restore system, boot, and data like I have on many phones before only to ended up in a bootloop or bootloader only not even able to boot a TWRP from fastboot.

After several hours of trying just about everything I finally faced the fact that I was not going to be able to restore any NANDROID backup I had do to A/B, encryption or the latest Android security patch?

However, you can get you phone running again quite easily with this thread: https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/rom-stock-fastboot-roms-oneplus-6-t3796665 and using the flash-all option from a WIndows 10 VM (I am a Mac/Linux guy, but this does work from a Windows VM and is quick).

Before I re-installed anything I wanted to just verify that I could do a simple NANDROID backup of an empty phone with twrp / blu_spark and I can't under any case. Here's what I tried (with latest stock TWRP and latest Blu_Spark TWRP):

1) simple restore of data, system, boot -- > boots only to fastboot, need to recover with thread above
2) Recover with thread above, re-root (Magisk 18.1) and reinstall TWRP, boot ROM, then try restoring just data -- > same as #1
3) Recover using thread above, re-install TWRP, restore NANDROID, and re-run Magisk (suggest by a few) --> same as #1

My device is encrypted, and I could turn off encryption, but that is somewhat scary on a daily driver.

So has anyone successfully restored a NANDROID on a 9.0.4 rooted phone with the latest Android security patch and if so, what's the trick?

Thanks,

MW

 

[magnamentis]

So I did what I thought was a routine thing, trying to restore system, boot, and data like I have on many phones before only to ended up in a bootloop or bootloader only not even able to boot a TWRP from fastboot.

After several hours of trying just about everything I finally faced the fact that I was not going to be able to restore any NANDROID backup I had do to A/B, encryption or the latest Android security patch?

However, you can get you phone running again quite easily with this thread: https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/rom-stock-fastboot-roms-oneplus-6-t3796665 and using the flash-all option from a WIndows 10 VM (I am a Mac/Linux guy, but this does work from a Windows VM and is quick).

Before I re-installed anything I wanted to just verify that I could do a simple NANDROID backup of an empty phone with twrp / blu_spark and I can't under any case. Here's what I tried (with latest stock TWRP and latest Blu_Spark TWRP):

1) simple restore of data, system, boot -- > boots only to fastboot, need to recover with thread above
2) Recover with thread above, re-root (Magisk 18.1) and reinstall TWRP, boot ROM, then try restoring just data -- > same as #1
3) Recover using thread above, re-install TWRP, restore NANDROID, and re-run Magisk (suggest by a few) --> same as #1

My device is encrypted, and I could turn off encryption, but that is somewhat scary on a daily driver.

So has anyone successfully restored a NANDROID on a 9.0.4 rooted phone with the latest Android security patch and if so, what's the trick?

Thanks,

MW

apparently is not matter of factly, i do nandroids and have restored from them various times with only 2-3 settings that i had to reset my way thereafter, hence it's apparently worth to retry, it works.

sometimes it helps to know that things are possible to put some more effort into something, knowing it can be worth it in case of success.

perhaps some remarks:

if your' phone is "empty" as you stated i recommend to first install factory image / stock rom latest OOS, i.e. 9.0.4

make nandroids of each partiton speparately and also restore them separately while don't nandroid the images, and cerrtainly don't restore those, only common partitions like system, boot, vendor, data.
system and vendor are present as normal partition as well as image partition, don't touch the later in any way.

all this only works if you restore on a phone that was bootable before you restore, for restoring to empty phones there are other procedures via fastboot commands and or stock rom via stock recovery if it's on device, else ADB comes in handy.

last but not least if you restore you have to restore everything, not only one partition especially not only system partition, won't work well or not at all depending.

1. Modem if corrupted, else not needed
2. EFS if corrupted, else not needed
3. Vendor start here if the previous rom was running well and make sure it's not been altered or you have to correct vendor backup in case you have more than one

4. System
5. Boot
6. Data

good luck

 

[MetroWestMA]

apparently is not matter of factly, i do nandroids and have restored from them various times with only 2-3 settings that i had to reset my way thereafter, hence it's apparently worth to retry, it works.

sometimes it helps to know that things are possible to put some more effort into something, knowing it can be worth it in case of success.

good luck

OK -- do tell, what settings did you use? And you have done this on OOS 9.0.4 with encryption, or did you disable decryption?

I'll happily delete or edit the post...it seems many are having problems with few solutions starting with 9.0.4...

Thanks,

MW

 

[magnamentis]

OK -- do tell, what settings did you use? And you have done this on OOS 9.0.4 with encryption, or did you disable decryption?

I'll happily delete or edit the post...it seems many are having problems with few solutions starting with 9.0.4...

Thanks,

MW

the last restore i did on 9.0.3, since then i gave up on custom roms since OOS rooted + a few useful apps make OOS close to perfect for me

i'd not delete the thread, many reported issues with nandroids because the normal procedure to take one single backup and restore from twrp to an empty device does not work, one always need to first flash stock OOS to a clean slate before installing anything else or restoring anything.
and backups should be in increments not one single backup like it was possible on single slot devices.

restoring one single partition usuelly ends up in a mess except boot partition, boot, efs and modem can be restored as standalone restores without issues in most cases while flashing a kernel + magisk is still easier and safer than restoring a boot partition.

as to setttings i dunno what you mean, exactly and as to encryption, my device is and has bee encrypted at all times.

it's most important to use twrp- recovery by blue_spark, official standard recovery has issues ( at least always had as long as i tried using it) especially with verification in TWRP on encrypted devices. there is a risk to end up encrypted without any way to boot back into system or into twrp menu, hence use blue_spark's and all is well, user error exempt of course

 

[MetroWestMA]

Since reinstalling everything is going to take forever (at least another 4 hours)...I am going to disable encryption and do some more testing. I am now more certain than ever, no-one has successfully restored a NANDROID on an encrypted OOS 9.0.4 phone ever.

I am going to disable Force Encryption and AVB 2.0/dm-verity and try my restore again -- maybe then I can use one of my NANDROIDS. But doing this on an encrypted phone seems impossible. I guess if you use a screen PIN you files are still vulnerable to someone that knows bootloader and / or recovery, but I'll have to live with that.... Not being able to NANDRIOD restore is a killer...

 

[Cicilloni]

I know is an old discussion but I believe we still have this issue. I have a 6T, oos10.3.6 and neve succeeded to restore a nandroid backup. Does anyone found a working solution?
Thanks