Android catch 22

[SpaceGhostC2C]

I'm facing a sort of infinite loop here. I'm considering rooting and/or flashing custom ROMs into my android phone for a number of reasons. So far, nothing is working well (ADB works randomly, programs that require ADB also work randomly, etc), but when dealing with prehistoric 1980s-style computers Android this isn't at all unexpected. I'm willing to invest some time and end up worse that I currently am in the process, so long as I can revert to defaults. And that's where the real problem comes: every guide on the matter suggests backing up the stock software in case things go wrong, which given other users's experiences seems very reasonable. The problem is, all suggested backup methods involve a rooted phone. And all rooting guides suggest backing up first, because rooting can also lead to infinite reboot loops. However, at that point they link to backup guides... which require phone rooting.

 

So my question: is there any way I can cover myself against terminal failure before rooting the phone (i.e., in case the rooting attempt bricks it)?

[Cryosec]

When I fuckup my Nexus, google's stock ROM saves it every time. Obviously I lose all data, but photos are in the cloud, apps list is saved on my google account and the rest is usually saved also on my pc.

Anyway, reverting to stock helps fixing some problems (if it's not hard bricked, which makes the phone useless)

 

As for backups, you could do as I do (cloud, google account and manual backup of useful stuff)

[porina]

Check if your phone manufacturer provides a recovery image? Then you wont need an OS backup. Assume all user data will be nuked on a re-flash. So remember to move off local files if not backed up elsewhere, the rest will be in the cloud.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

2 minutes ago, Cryosec said:

When I fuckup my Nexus, google's stock ROM saves it every time. Obviously I lose all data, but photos are in the cloud, apps list is saved on my google account and the rest is usually saved also on my pc.

Anyway, reverting to stock helps fixing some problems (if it's not hard bricked, which makes the phone useless)

 

As for backups, you could do as I do (cloud, google account and manual backup of useful stuff)

Thanks for your reply.

 

The thing is, I'm not worried about data. Pictures, etc, is already in the SD card, and it's also somewhere else anyway. In fact, I've just reset  the phone to factory defaults

My problem is, if I understood correctly, that to install custom ROMs I need to flash them on top of the factory ROM, so the phone "resets" to a different thing. If that fails, I've lost the option to restore the actual factory ROM, and I need a way to do so.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Check if your phone manufacturer provides a recovery image? Then you wont need an OS backup. Assume all user data will be nuked on a re-flash. So remember to move off local files if not backed up elsewhere, the rest will be in the cloud.

Thanks for your help.

 

I have found the ROM in the manufacturer's website. Are you saying that, no matter how much I torture my phone (as long as it's software torture only ), there's always a way to flash that ROM back? That would be very reassuring  

[Cryosec]

1 minute ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

My problem is, if I understood correctly, that to install custom ROMs I need to flash them on top of the factory ROM, so the phone "resets" to a different thing. If that fails, I've lost the option to restore the actual factory ROM, and I need a way to do so.

that's where fastboot or recovery comes in. they are separated from the ROM, so if this goes FUBAR, you should still be able to reach fastboot or recovery (from where you can reflash stock)

[porina]

 

2 minutes ago, Cryosec said:

that's where fastboot or recovery comes in. they are separated from the ROM, so if this goes FUBAR, you should still be able to reach fastboot or recovery (from where you can reflash stock)

That's what I thought too, but I'm not 100% sure as I hadn't looked at it at that level before.