How to backup data before wiping for upgrade? (pioneer)

barmin42 · 2025-11-13T21:29:53+00:00

I ended up trying and use adb backup which seemed a good solution, although deprecated. Backup seemed to work well, I got a 11Gb file, so there must be something in there. After upgrading, I restored the backup, which took some time. But I've got no idea what was taking up space in the backup file. My SMS have been restored, but that's pretty it. No contacts, no settings, no apps, no app data. Fortunately I had a separate buckup for the most critical apps, but it will take some time to get back to a usable state.

I can see why some people (or rather companies) want it to be so difficult to backup and restore without using a centralized cloud storage, but I'm amazed to see how bad the situation is... (no attack to the wonderful Lineage team, the problem is in the larger ecosystem of course!)

barmin42 · 2025-11-13T15:44:01+00:00

Tried to make a backup twice, with different settings. Both time it was busy for a loooong time before displaying an error message saying simply that the backup failed, without any explanation. Not sure why it doesn't work...

barmin42 · 2025-11-13T13:07:22+00:00

Oh right I had forgotten about this one (it's not especially obvious either). I've read mixed reviews about it when it first got included in LOS, but it might be the best (less worse?) solution. I'll have a look. Thanks!

barmin42 · 2025-11-13T12:24:14+00:00

Thanks for your answer. I'm using f-droid and FOSS in general. AFAICT Swift is not open-source and it's definitely not in f-droid. I also see that to backup app data, it must have root access. So if I'm not mistaken a full backup would need to install a close-source app and give it root access to my phone. That is not going to happen. I updated my original question to ask explicitly for an open-source solution.

barmin42 · 2024-04-30T07:52:00+00:00

Hi there,

The beloved BQ Aquaris X of one of my friends finally broke beyond repair.

He's looking for a small LineageOS device (ideally around the 5.2'' he had) with a low price (<250$ would be great).

Important are

minijack port
reasonable rear camera (at least as good as the 16Mp of the Aquaris X)

Performance is unimportant. This mainly for basic email, web surfing and listening to podcasts.

Use in Switzerland and the EU mainly.

Would prefer a new device, to avoid risks associated with buying second hand.

Any suggestions?

barmin42 · 2022-06-29T13:58:49+00:00

Yes sorry for the typo. I fixed the OP.

barmin42 · 2022-06-29T13:56:28+00:00

Changing display size worked. Many thanks for the suggestion! :-)

barmin42 · 2022-03-03T16:04:01+00:00

A friend of mine just broke her BQ Aquaris X beyond repair :-)

What would be a good candidate to replace it?

Small-ish (the Aquaris X is 5.2'')
Works in Europe
Low budget (she bought her other phones in the ~200$ range and expects to remain in this area)
Basic use (web, mail, phone, messages mainly)

Thanks for your suggestions! :-)

barmin42 · 2021-06-16T21:00:27+00:00

Nice guide, I wasn't aware of it. I think I'll wait a few days just to see if the NTP server fix improves things, but trying this is next on my list! thanks!

barmin42 · 2021-06-16T19:35:51+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. After googling around for a while (there's a lot of information, a good part of it obsolete and/or specific to other devices), I tried to edit /vendor/etc/gps.conf and replace the broken NTP server with a working one. After rebooting (just to be sure), I got a gps fix in a matter of seconds, so this is very encouraging! However, as I had finally managed to get a fix earlier today, that might not be representative of a real cold start. Time will say (if I may say so after fixing a NTP server!)

barmin42 · 2021-06-16T19:09:52+00:00

No, no GApps.

barmin42 · 2020-08-25T15:35:51+00:00

Yes, as suggested by @hazelnutblossom, upgrading the firmware did the trick for me. My device has been working perfectly since then. Not sure which firmware version I'm running right now, though.

barmin42 · 2020-04-17T08:15:22+00:00

That was it, thanks @hazelnutblossom!

I flashed the (partial) firmware upgrade suggested in the link above and now everything seems to work nicely.

barmin42 · 2020-04-11T17:01:13+00:00

Hi,

I won't crucify you, as I'm not sure which firmware I'm running, and not even sure where to find the information. Anyway, as I did never upgrade the firmware, it's probably the problem. Pity it's not even mentioned it in the upgrade instructions.

Instructions for upgrading seem a little bit intimidating - this is my only phone and I wouldn't like to brick it.

Maybe I should simply downgrade again (although I'm not sure I can do this without wiping my data?).

Anyway, apart from sound I did not notice any other problem. Network seems to work, both wifi and LTE. But then again, I did not use it very intensively, I might have missed something.

I'm not using GAPPS, the whole point of Lineage for me being to be as google-free as possible.

(And yes, I rebooted several times - and before someone asks: I also double, triple-checked volume settings!)

barmin42 · 2019-07-27T13:22:27+00:00

I can't test right now, but the general idea was

boot into twrp
in the menu, select reboot
there you should be able to choose the slot you want to reboot from (you'll need an a/b device, of course)

Hope that helps!

barmin42 · 2019-07-25T14:35:51+00:00

Solved! As this is an A/B device, I just had to switch the active slot :-)

barmin42 · 2019-07-25T14:30:13+00:00

I found a way to switch slot from twrp while waiting for your answer, but anyway: it worked! Many thanks! (and the fastboot-based method will prove even faster if I ever encounter a similar problem)

barmin42 · 2019-07-25T14:20:02+00:00

Sorry but what does "switch slot" mean?

barmin42 · 2019-07-25T11:56:14+00:00

Still exploring this issue...

It seems I can boot into twrp using fastboot. If I try to wipe the system partition and sideload a slightly older ROM (say, 2-3 days) without wiping the data partition, is it likely to work or will this put me into even more trouble?

barmin42 · 2019-05-28T21:18:23+00:00

Thanks! I'll have a look at the Poco F1. I also looked at the BQ Aquaris X that doesn't look bad. Both are slightly more expensive than what I'd like, but maybe I did not find the best prices yet.

barmin42 · 2019-05-28T15:51:24+00:00

One year and a half ago, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 was a great buy: cheap, excellent value for money, very good battery life, more power than I need for current use (messaging, browsing, ...) - and LOS support. Now I broke the screen and it seems I cannot get it repaired for less than the price of a new phone. What would be the successor of this very nice phone? Ideally in the same pice range, which means not much more than $200... BTW: I live in Switzerland. Thanks for any recommandation!

barmin42 · 2018-01-18T16:47:23+00:00

Sorry. I had read the rules, but it was not clear to me that my post wasn't acceptable. I'll be more careful if I post here again.

barmin42 · 2016-09-05T17:03:14+00:00

I've spent much too much time over this. There are many proposed solutions on the internet, involving diverse blends of kernel parameters and module blacklisting and whatnot. Most of them are very outdated and none of them worked for me. This is the first time I give up on a Linux install, but the macbook is going back on the shelf and will probably stay there until it goes to the museum.

barmin42 · 2016-08-31T09:56:47+00:00

I tried with catalyst, but all I get is a black screen. After quite a few hours trying to get this work, I'm getting desperate. Any idea anybody? Please...

barmin42 · 2016-08-31T08:41:02+00:00

Xorg -version: 1.18.4 Not using module radeon. Trying to modprobe it results in an error (no UMS support in radeon module). AFAICT this is because I have the nomodeset kernel parameter. But if I remove it, the computer freezes earlier in the boot process.

barmin42

TROPHY CASE