Is there a way to *properly* use ROM Manager?

[drfsupercenter]

I've had the original Droid and the Droid 2, I recently got a Droid 4 a few weeks ago.

First thing I did was root and install Safestrap, and I've made some nandroid backups manually using the Safestrap recovery (including an unmodified stock+root one).

But my question is concerning ROM Manager. I used to have it set up to make automatic backups every night, so that if I accidentally screwed something up, I could restore last night's backup. It was a nice system. And then I used the "ROM Manager Janitor" app to delete backups older than 5 days so the SD card didn't fill up.

Problem is, the Safestrap menu. If I tell ROM Manager to make a backup, it will only work if I'm physically sitting there and can press the Menu key to get into recovery, otherwise the phone boots like normal and nothing happens.

Additionally, it stores it on the INTERNAL SD card, which can only hold 1-2 backups anyway, I need to use my external 32GB MicroSD.

So is this possible with the Droid 4, to get ROM Manager to "play nice" with Safestrap? I know it lets you select the Droid 4 from the recovery flashing menu, and just tells you that you have to flash it manually (which I did). But if I have to manually trigger recovery, it completely defeats the purpose of an AUTOMATIC backup.

 

[GigaJake]

I tried using ROM Manager on my Droid 3 before Safestrap was released and I had the same problem where it wouldn't boot into recovery. I figured it had to do with the need for a bootstrap. However, the issues you're encountering are pretty straight forward.

First off, ROM Manager is designed to work with Clockworkmod Recovery, not Safestrap. Even if you didn't need to push a button upon booting to enter the recovery, there's no guarantee it would make a backup. If you want to utilize ROM Manager you need to remove Safestrap completely and switch to CMW recovery, something I personally don't recommend. As for the storage of backups, that would have something to do with the settings of CMW and ROM Manager.

And you might want to be careful about flashing CMW over safestrap if you haven't already. Mixing two recoveries often lead to disastrous results and we don't have any SBF files to fix a brick at this point.

Hope this helped clarify any confusion.

Sent from my DROID4 using Carrier Pigeons

 

[drfsupercenter]

Oh, it does actually make a backup if I tell it to boot to Safestrap. Safestrap recovery is essentially the ClockworkMod one but differently named. As I said, it makes it on the internal SD but otherwise it works fine... IF I'm sitting there to boot it into recovery mode.

Is there actually a ClockworkMod standalone for the Droid 4? I don't need Safestrap, I don't use the "safe system" or anything of the sort, but it was the only nandroid-making tool that existed at the time, to my knowledge. If I can get the regular CWM recovery for the Droid 4, I could just as easily use that.

 

[GigaJake]

You can flash CWM through ROM Manager as long as you effectively remove Safestrap completely. I also saw an option in the general settings of ROM Manager that would let you toggle between making backups on your external sdcard.

Sent from my DROID4 using Carrier Pigeons

 

[drfsupercenter]

Wait, what? Am I using an older version of ROM Manager? Mine just says "It's not officially supported, have you flashed it manually?"

I also couldn't find any settings regarding where the backups are stored on mine.

 

[GigaJake]

Hm, you're right. I wasn't aware that despite being listed in the devices list it wasn't supported, a little misleading. As for the storage location it's Settings -> Use External Storage

 

[drfsupercenter]

Interestingly enough, you *don't* want to have that checked. "External storage" saves it to the 8GB internal SD and not using it sees the SD card properly. Odd, but I'll take it.

Now if only I could get it to back up on its own...

 

[stealthmouse]

Automatic Backups

Titanium Backup can be set to make automatic backups, and you can basically set anything you want, in terms of files, when it backs up, where it backs up, etc. It's a root level app, obviously, but you don't have to be in recovery to use it.