TWRP Experiences, Pros & Cons

That’s indeed pretty bad, let’s hope during the CM-port progress there will also be some work in the future on TWRP and decryption support for /data.

Unfortunately I did not take a look into the forum before encrypt my FP2 device.
Can someone shortly explain (or post a link if it is already described somewhere) the options I have now? (e.g. how to switch to stock recovery)

Especially before updating the phone I like to have a full current backup … I normally
create it via TWRP. In addition I used a USB stick (/USB-OTG) as backup target in
the past (Nexus 5 - CM 12 - TWRP). It looks like that this is not possible with
the FP TWRP version as well. :-/

Thanks for any recommendation in advance.

There are some apps (like nandroid backup), which can create those backups from the running ROM. So you could restore that on an unencrypted (new) phone. At least in theory,i didn’t test it…

OT:
Is it possible to somehow rename the sdcard mountpoint with twrp? In an other rooted Phone with TWRP the mounted sdcard has a name with 40 characters. And is not anymore located in “/storage/”

TWRP does NOT backup all of our personal data.
So it should not be considered as a “full backup” solution.
All our stuff stored in /storage/sdcard0 - filemanager like “amaze” perspective - and subdirectories is NOT saved by TWRP.
This is what the TWRP folks indicated in their FAQ stating that /data/media will not be saved …
How do you backup the stuff in the mentioned directory? I am not interested in closed source tools or apps.

Well, actually, I make zips or directly transfer it via adb to my computer. I don’t have a better solution right now …

Which folders and subfolders do we need to save separately to have a complete backup via TWRP?

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Well, depends on what you deem important. I usually check DCIM (Pictures), Download (have some pdfs there I still want to read), probably the media directories from some chat programs (but often the themselves offer a backup feature), eBooks, it really depends on your Apps, and whether they offer Backup functionality, or what else you might store there (Music?)

So TWRP doesn’t create a nandroid backup like CWM? I’m using CWM on my FP1 and it does backup everything.

Another experience I want to share: TWRP backups can not be restored on a different phone with identical hardware. E.g. one has two FP2. Backup on one FP2 to external sdcard and then inserting the card in the other phone and restore there does not work. TWRP simply does not list your backup on the sdcard in the other phone. -
I wanted to exchange FP2 with my daughter, because she complains about intermittant FPOOS crashes. So I tried to copy my ROM on her FP2 using TWRP, what did not work. - I assume that TWRP keeps record of the sdcard “id” used for backup.

I’m pretty sure that works. In fact I believe to remember I did that before.
Afaik you just have to be sure not to rename or move the file, but leave it just the way TWRP creates it.

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TWRP stores its backups with this path:

TWRP/BACKUPS/crypticfoldername/

This crypticfoldername is different with every phone. Easy solution: with the sdcard with the backups from the other phone make a backup of eg. /boot. With this backup the crypticfoldername of this phone will be created. Push your backups to that new folder and you can restore …

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Now it works. I renamed the “cryptic” directory names on the sdcards in both FP2. The names are swapped now.
Thanks a lot for the hint.

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Hi,

I wanted to backup my FP2 and then upgrade it to Android 6. So far I used the FP Open and to my knowlegde did never anything to change the system. At some point I made a backup in TWRP but since then never accessed it and just upgraded to newer versions in good faith. I didn’t have any problems, so no need to do anything with TWRP.
Upon reading some people having troubles with the new upgrade I wanted to be on the save side and have a full backup ready.
Now to my problem: When I try to access TWRP now, simply nothing happens.
I start the phone with vol pressed down, the phone vibrates, the white FP logo with black background showes, and then the phone stays like this. I let it be for around 20 min and nothing changes, also doesn’t get hot or something. I can then restart it again and it will boot with no problems, but I cannot access TWRP.
Probably I have overseen something simple, I am not really a pro with android. But if not, what are my options here?

And another question: When I get TWRP running again, can I then backup in a way that I can recover everything from config to contacts/calendar and data? I didn’t get that from the thread if that is possible or not.

Thanks for every possible help!

Starting the phone with Volume down gets you into fastboot mode, not TWRP recovery.
To get into recovery, start the phone with Volume up :wink: .

TWRP does not do a complete backup, it even gives a message about that when doing backups. With TWRP you get a complete backup of the system (the OS), but because of the complicated nature of Android internal storage (something along those lines, layman here) it doesn’t handle data stored there (pictures, calendar, contacts, music, ringtones and whatnot …).
For the data, you have to take additional measures, often recommended for this are Titanium Backup on the phone or MyPhoneExplorer for Windows PCs, but you could have a look at these threads …

Oh wow, stupid mistake it is … thanks, that one actually works! Starting backup right now.[quote=“AnotherElk, post:55, topic:17215”]
TWRP does not do a complete backup, it even gives a message about that when doing backups. With TWRP you get a complete backup of the system (the OS), but because of the complicated nature of Android internal storage (something along those lines, layman here) it doesn’t handle data stored there (pictures, calendar, contacts, music, ringtones and whatnot …).
[/quote]

But in the backup it says backup data …? (its about 2 gb on my phone)

Thanks for the quick and useful answer, though!

EDIT: Titanium backup sounds great but is there an option to install that without using one of those “get the free apk from play store” sites?

TWRP does not backup all your /data. It leaves out /data/media - where all your files etc. are stored, because it needs to write there.

See:

or

TitaniumBackup Pro… But i don’t know the costs.
But beware, the media storage isn’t backupped (?) here also. Best to copy it to your pc, (or sd card) via adb for a file manager

17 posts were split to a new topic: Issues decrypting data in TWRP on Fairphone Open OS

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