You might have heard a lot of times that if you are going for something related to an Android phone’s operating system, then make a NANDROID backup of the Android phone before proceeding. A NANDROID backup is recommended before you flash a custom ROM because if the new ROM screws up and your phone do not behave as it should after flashing a new ROM. It won’t even pass the boot screen. Then you can use NANDROID backup to restore stock or existing ROM that you have been using on your phone before you decided to flash a new ROM.
NANDROID is very helpful, even if you accidentally soft-brick your phone. You can restore your Android to the previous ROM in just a few minutes. NANDROID saves your data along with the existing operating system; it is very beneficial for a person who flashes ROM every other day. The best solution is to make a NANDROID backup of your phone with stock ROM and move that backup to your PC or Cloud storage. So even if your internal storage or external storage gets corrupted, you can still have access to your files and data.
How to Make Nandroid Backup of Android Phone
In the following guide, I will cover how you can make a NANDROID backup of your phone and restore that backup on your phone. This guide also includes moving the backup to a safe place like a cloud or PC.
Prerequisites:
- Your Android device should be rooted.
- Your Android phone should have a custom recovery like CWM or TWRP.
- Finally, remove the lock screen PIN CODE of your phone. Otherwise, you will have a problem while restoring the backup later on.
If your phone isn’t rooted or doesn’t have a custom recovery, then use this link to install it on your Android phone. Use the guide in the link, but make sure you download the files to your smartphone.
Step to Step guide on how to make nandroid backup of an Android phone using CWM or TWRP:
- Turn off your phone.
- First of all, go to the Recovery menu on your phone.
- For Samsung:
- Press and hold Volume up + Home + Power Button till you see the Android figure on the screen.
- For Nexus Phone:
- Press the Volume down + Power button.
- Now use the volume buttons to navigate to Recovery Mode.
- Use the Power button to select it.
Once in the recovery menu, follow the steps according to your custom recovery:
- TWRP
- Tap Backup.
- Select the partitions which you want to back up. If you’re going to make a full backup leave the selection to default.
- Swipe to the right, and backup will be performed.
- CWM
- Use the volume buttons to go to Backup and Restore.
- Select Backup.
- That’s it. All your data and ROM will be saved in a backup file.
Location of NANDROID Backup:
For TWRP: Locate the TWRP folder on your phone; it will be present in the external storage of your phone. There you will find the folder with a backup of your phone. It is mainly saved with the date and time you made that specific backup. Then, move it to your PC or upload it to your cloud storage.
For CWM: Locate the CWM folder in your phone’s external storage. It is present at data/media/clockworkmod/backups. Then, move the backup file to your PC or upload it to cloud storage. Backups are stored with the date and time when the backup was performed.
How to Restore NANDROID Backup of Android:
To restore the NANDROID backup of Android, Go to the Recovery menu using the guide above and then follow the below steps:
For CWM: Select the backup and restore option and then select restore. Now, you will see all the backups present on your phone. (Remember, if you moved the backup to your PC and now want to restore it, you will have to move it back to the same folder data/media/clockworkmod/backups.) Next, select the backup and use the power button to restore it on your phone.
For TWRP
- Tap Restore on the recovery menu.
- Select the backup you want to restore.
- Swipe to restore.
That’s all on how to make a NANDROID backup of an Android phone. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments. Your feedback will be appreciated. Also, if you want to add more to this guide, let me know how I can improve this guide.
