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So im wondering, what is the standard practise, or based on your own experiences. What is the best way to flash over an existing rom using CWM? What do you do to prepare the fone for new rom, wipe user data, dalvik cache, before or after flashing. Just trying to get a good idea of how to do it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
going from rom to rom:
put rom.zip on /sdcard/
reboot to recovery
install zip from sdcard
point to rom.zip
flash
reboot
any rom that has been properly done will wipe user data and dalvik cache for you. no need to do it manually
i always flash back to eclair and master clear with odin one click to make sure all files from previous roms are gone then CWM flash new ROM
Pirateghost said:
going from rom to rom:
put rom.zip on /sdcard/
reboot to recovery
install zip from sdcard
point to rom.zip
flash
reboot
any rom that has been properly done will wipe user data and dalvik cache for you. no need to do it manually
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Except I do clear the caches manually, but that's just because I have OCD.
CremeFraiche said:
i always flash back to eclair and master clear with odin one click to make sure all files from previous roms are gone then CWM flash new ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lets look at the master clear function shall we?
when you flash to stock...your entire / is stock (RFS, eclair 2.1, /data /system, etc)
essentially, you have just reformatted your root, think of it like formatting your C drive and your sdcard is like a secondary internal drive that contains storage
master clear at this point will only delete items off your /sdcard
roms dont care about your /sdcard, master clear is worthless when you are stock
there was a time where it was necessary to flash to stock to reset the filesystem and then flash the rom. it has not been needed in months, but it continues to get preached as gospel.
even flashing to stock isnt necessary unless you are trying to come from CM7 or MIUI....or if something goes horribly wrong
Thx for info guys, I have flashed a few times and it seemed like now and then my fone must became bogged down and needed to be fully wiped, sound didnt work or lagfix folders bunch of text docs, just seemed cluttered. So if wanted to really clear out junk what would be a good way without having to flash back to stock?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Just flash. If you have a problem then back to stock Ans a MC. I have flashed hundreds of time back to stock once.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App
Pirateghost said:
lets look at the master clear function shall we?
when you flash to stock...your entire / is stock (RFS, eclair 2.1, /data /system, etc)
essentially, you have just reformatted your root, think of it like formatting your C drive and your sdcard is like a secondary internal drive that contains storage
master clear at this point will only delete items off your /sdcard
roms dont care about your /sdcard, master clear is worthless when you are stock
there was a time where it was necessary to flash to stock to reset the filesystem and then flash the rom. it has not been needed in months, but it continues to get preached as gospel.
even flashing to stock isnt necessary unless you are trying to come from CM7 or MIUI....or if something goes horribly wrong
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would definitely agree. I have also seen people say to disable lagfix before flashing. I have not done that either and never had any problem.
Would just like to amend the advice already given with the following:
Pre-flashing:
1. Titanium Backup of apps and data
2. Nandroid backup in case something goes boom.
Post-flashing (assuming success):
TB restore of user apps/data only. NEVER RESTORE SYSTEM FILES.
They may not apply to some people, but I feel those are necessary steps for anyone that actually uses their phone daily.
modest_mandroid said:
Would just like to amend the advice already given with the following:
Pre-flashing:
1. Titanium Backup of apps and data
2. Nandroid backup in case something goes boom.
Post-flashing (assuming success):
TB restore of user apps/data only. NEVER RESTORE SYSTEM FILES.
They may not apply to some people, but I feel those are necessary steps for anyone that actually uses their phone daily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why not restore system files? Does this apply if coming from flashing back to stock first, or just flashing from one rom to another?
Glad to hear the advice about not flashing back to stock, that's been one of the major reasons I haven't flashed quite as many rom's as I want, too time consuming.........not to say that i'm not flashing a couple rom's a week, but there's just so many options to try
neophile said:
why not restore system files? Does this apply if coming from flashing back to stock first, or just flashing from one rom to another?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Making "search" a standard practice would be very helpful.
Restoring system is known to mess up ROMs in all cases. Though may not be mandatory, but make it a standard practice to flash stock. Takes hardly 10 mins, and helps save big headaches later.
neophile said:
why not restore system files? Does this apply if coming from flashing back to stock first, or just flashing from one rom to another?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incompatibilities across rom versions, mostly. As the guy above me said, restoring system files tends to mess up a rom because you are overwriting part of it with files from a different rom.
There is one caveat, however. If you're flashing back to a rom you originally performed the backup on, you can safely restore system files. For example, if you were running Cog 4.3 and did a full TB backup, then decided to flash Serendipity 6.3, you would want to restore only your user apps and user data. However, if you decided to flash back to Cog 4.3 at some point, you could do a full TB restore without worrying about incompatibilities.
I agree with everyone else. Flashing over another rom seldom causes issues. I make s nandroid backup of my favorite rom with everything setup the way i like it. then flash away trying different roms. When i am done, i just restore my backup and all is good!
I have done a search, couldn't find the specific answer I needed, hence my asking. Could be I wasn't phrasing the search correctly......but here I am.....
To clarify, what do you dpo to get your system settings back after flashing a new rom? I flashed to serendipty 6.4 last night, as per the advice, I didn't restore system files, just apps and data, but that didn't work so well for me. I lost my data connection, could only use my wifi, and had no contacts, or any sms msgs. I don't know what else was missing, but I then went and restored system files, everything came back as needed, and there seems to be no issue......
How do I get my info setting back, or do I just need to manually re-set everything after flashing? Apart from wireless info, msgs and contacts, what else do you lose by not restoring?
Appreciate your help
havent flashed a new rom in a while and forgot if anything extra was needed when flashing a rom over a rom
thx!
Hello all,
I've been running Eclipse 2.2 on 902 for some time and I've stubbornly refused to switch away from using bootstrap for all my backup needs, however, after reading enough about it I decided to give safestrap a try. I've had a little trouble with the process however and was looking for a little clarity...
My understanding with safestrap was that in addition to giving me a safe (technically unsafe) 2nd partition/access to recovery in case I messed something up, that it would also pretty easily transfer data, apps, etc from one partition to the next, making flashing roms (and I thought updating) much easier and quicker without needing to backup individual portions of my system, Is this correct or am I mistaken?
Onward to what I did (my goal is to update to 905 and install eclipse 3.0) - Installed safestrap, backed up safe and unsafe side. I then went to unsafe and used bootstrap to restore to IMMEDIATELY after I applied the 902 update (had backed it up previously). This backup was literally a stock Bionic which I had updated from 886 all the way to 902, rooted, then installed bootstrap to backup. I then updated this to 905 with no issue, and of course backed it up... From here, my understanding was that I could simply swap over to safe side, then install the eclipse 3.0 through finding a zip in recovery - Recovery would not do this for me. It gave me an error similar to "cannot apply eclipse3.0.zip (bad)"
I tried to push the ROM both without making any changes (just switching from unsafe to safe and immediately trying to apply the zip) and when that didn't work I wiped data, formatted system, and wiped cache/dalvik and got the same error. (the net result through all of this was making my safe side non-responsive, and me ending up restoring safe side system to the initial backup I had made about 30 minutes prior).
Is this working as intended? Should I look at safestrap as purely an extra failsafe to keep me from bricking my phone and not an easier method to flash/update? If I have to expect that I need to go to safe, follow the same path to apply the update as I did on unsafe, then flash 3.0 and restore with titaniumbackup, sms/call log backup, etc, I will, but I just wanted to make sure I'm not misunderstanding something with safestrap that may allow me to make this whole process easier - I'd be much more interested in trying out a variety of ROMs if the restoring of my data wasn't such a hassle when I did it.
Sorry for the long post - I'm long winded and also wanted to get all of the information out there for anyone who may answer.
Thanks in advance!
-Jamie
Guess I was too wordy and nobody wants to read it (or posted in the wrong spot maybe) -
tldr:
Is there a way to use safestrap as having a way to easily transfer data etc from one rom/update to the next? or should I be using it solely to have an extra backup to prevent me from bricking my phone, and just do the longer more arduous methods of restoring data and settings after a rom swap/update?
I'm no expert but I have successfully used Safestrap, installed eclipse 3.0 as well as tried other roms and themes, and have other Android experience as well. Sounded like you may have used bootstrap and Safestrap at the same time. Am I wrong? If not, from my understanding that is a no no. Uninstall bootstrap completely and use Safestrap only. I also upgraded my "unsafe" system to .905 via OTA before attempting 3.0. My first experience with Safestrap, however, was not entirely positive either. I think my download was corrupt because it stopped working correctly. I downloaded again and haven't had any problems since. I followed this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1455888 and it worked. He's not really all that clear at times. It's also not necessary to factory reset after flashing a new rom. Always do it, but it can be done before too. I always do it before and have no problems. Also if you decide to apply a theme make sure you boot up the new ROM before flashing the theme. This guide was not entirely clear on that and it got stuck in a wicked boot loop that ended with me on stock and Safestrap gone. Keep trying. Hope some of this helped. I'm wordy too
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Btw, to answer your first question, the best way I've found to transfer user apps from ROM to ROM is with titanium backup. Other data will still be on your sd cards and accessible to the new ROM. I never use titanium to restore system settings and most system apps though. Things tend to get messed up if you try to do this from one rom to another. System apps can be converted to user apps with titanium which is cool then backed up and restored to new ROM. And never restore Google play app with titanium. Some go so far as to say don't restore apps with data but I haven't had any trouble except with core google apps like play, gmail, voice. Usually flash gapps if I have to and restore other core Google apps directly from play store. Sometimes titanium "hangs" on some apps. Not to much trouble with it lately maybe it's fixed used to be a PIA though.Sorry there's still plenty of setup involved any time you want to "dial in" a new ROM.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Thanks G-diddy,
To clarify, I knew bootstrap and safestrap didn't play well together. That being said, I did NOT use safestrap to try and restore to a bootstrap backup. I installed safestrap, then swapped to my UNSAFE side, then restored to a previous bootstrap backup (using bootstrap), then OTAd to .905. I then backed up this fresh near stock but rooted .905 with safestrap (thus should never have to use bootstrap ever again). I then tried to swap over to safe and push eclipse 3.0 but had no success... At present my phone has near stock but rooted .905 on my unsafe side, and the same .902 with 2.2 eclipse on my safe side that I've been running for months...
I guess I have no choice but to restore my present safe side to the old bootstrap backup, then manually ota, then install the rom, I just thought that Safestrap would make all of this process easier - in as much as since my unsafe side is successfully updated, I was hoping my safe side would be too, making the process somewhat simpler. Sounds like I'm wrong in this assumption though, unless someone else can say otherwise?
Thanks for the tip on Titanium Backup too, although I've been using the premium version of that for months now, ever since I decided I was going to turn my phone into a toy
ive had the phone since at&t had it on display. rooted it and had various roms for the last couple years and never had any serious issues. last night i flashed jellycream v2 and then did a factory reset inside the rom. the phone prompted that it would reboot twice and that it was normal. it rebooted into twrp and did nothing afterwards. i rebooted it from the recovery and all it did was reboot back into recovery. i decided to flash a different version of twrp and still the same. then flashed clockwork and still got the same result. i wiped the bootloader and basically went through the rooting process again. flashed the latest version of twrp and the phone is still only booting into recovery.
i am at a loss because this is as far as my knowledge goes. its like the phone is stuck still trying to wait for that factory reset from the jellycream rom or something and it wont do anything else but load TWRP.
If factory hard reset will not work (with phone off, press power and volume up together for some seconds. You might want to try also holding home on the touch screen.) flashing firmware will fix it unless you have hardware failure, which I doubt.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=39269819
Part 1 can be tricky, so take your time and get that right before proceeding.
drastic00 said:
If factory hard reset will not work (with phone off, press power and volume up together for some seconds. You might want to try also holding home on the touch screen.) flashing firmware will fix it unless you have hardware failure, which I doubt.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=39269819
Part 1 can be tricky, so take your time and get that right before proceeding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so far i get the grey LG screen with 'booti mmc_read xxxx' at the upper left with the hard reset. it only takes 2 seconds to show up but the phone shuts off if i continue to hold the power and volume buttons. ill read up on that link here.
I missed that you wiped bootloader. You need that . So you could maybe just install the wkpark bootloader in recovery. You would do 1 and 3 here (1.25a file is down the page)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=39130435
I think Jellycream actually requires you have it, if I remember correctly.
Not sure why factory reset would cause that issue, but it will definitely not start without bootloader.
Flashing firmware will also write the (stock) bootloader if that does not do it. It will also reinstall the OS if system is corrupt or missing.
I can't find the thread for Jellycream2. Would you post a link? Are you sure it is for P920/P925 (same device, one is AT&T branded. I have the Thrill P925). If it is not for those device numbers, you may need xbsall's unbrick guide.
Also, if Jellycream2 is based on ICS and you were on a GB ROM, you would likely have needed to first upgrade to ICS and then install the ROM.
I'm just trying to understand why a factory reset could brick your phone...
drastic00 said:
I can't find the thread for Jellycream2. Would you post a link? Are you sure it is for P920/P925 (same device, one is AT&T branded. I have the Thrill P925). If it is not for those device numbers, you may need xbsall's unbrick guide.
Also, if Jellycream2 is based on ICS and you were on a GB ROM, you would likely have needed to first upgrade to ICS and then install the ROM.
I'm just trying to understand why a factory reset could brick your phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok basic rundown of what i did in the last year;
when first played around with rooted it about a year ago i used all-in-one to do it. i had already upgraded to ics using the lg mobile support tool prior to rooting. rooting went off fine until i installed a Beats Audio app from the play store. when the phone rebooted after it would be stuck at the grey LG logo. i didnt know what to do so i used twrp and wiped the whole phone. then i used all-in-one and flashed the ICS bootloader and did the flash kernel 4 fix or something its one of the last options to do. then using twrp i flashed ICS_V20_P20, Stock_V20P_Rooted, and a Thrill Update, the phone rebooted fine in an ICS rom but it ran like complete ****, so i tried various roms and the one i settled with was called OptimusRS V1. i used that up until 2 days ago when i flashed the jellycream rom.
after i factory reset that i tried to flash the different wkpark bootloader and twrp that came with the megatron tool hoping that would fix the issue. but it did so i reflashed the original twrp and ics bootloader from all-in-one.
failed to mention this before but i tried 3 different recovery files in between each attempt and it would flash and reboot fine but the phone would still do the same thing and just load recovery.
ill find links when i get off work today. thats the basic history of the phone though.
Hmm. Stil not sure then . Maybe a corrupt zip or you wiped something important. Flashing with LG Flashtool should recover it. And always make a Nandroid backup before installing anything from recovery.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2392309
thats the jellycream rom.
im downloading the files for your xbsa rom at the moment. i do remember yesterday when i used the megatron tool i saw an option to flash the stock bootloader and recovery. i tried it but all i got was the pink LG logo then a security error message below it and the phone shut off.
Oh, ok, OptimusRS's ROM.
Hmm, I thought v20 was GB or something... If it is not ICS then that would be the problem. Also it does say there you need wkpark bootloader for that ROM.
Also, xbsall's v28B includes recovery but it is in system partition. I don't know if that ROM requires you install it from recovery partition or not.
If you still want Jellycream you should be able to flash xbsall's ICS v28B (the normal partitions one, not large partitions), then install wkpark bootloader 1.25a in recovery, then the ROM.
drastic00 said:
Oh, ok, OptimusRS's ROM.
Hmm, I thought v20 was GB or something... If it is not ICS then that would be the problem. Also it does say there you need wkpark bootloader for that ROM.
Also, xbsall's v28B includes recovery but it is in system partition. I don't know if that ROM requires you install it from recovery partition or not.
If you still want Jellycream you should be able to flash xbsall's ICS v28B (the normal partitions one, not large partitions), then install wkpark bootloader 1.25a in recovery, then the ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well that breaks down that a bit better. my progress at the moment is step f6. when i connect the phone nothing installs though. it just reconnects and disconnects every second or so. im guessing its because i already have those files. dunno though. i cant get my pc to install the adb drivers for the life of me when the phone is connected in recovery mode.it sees the new hardware just cant find the files.
actually i got it. for some reason the phone wouldnt install anything until i put the battery back in at that step. i continued successfully to step M. the phone is setting up my google account at the moment.
will flashing the baseband be necessary if my apn and sim work like the phone is now? my provider is h20(canadian i heard) but im the usa.
HUGE thanks regardless
Cool :thumbup::beer:
The no battery part is just for driver install, which is fiddly for this phone. Sometimes trial and error is a factor.
The baseband you have now would be the one you had previously. If it works, no problem. The one in the v28B pack is supposed to be optimized for the v28B .bin file, but hey, whatever works.
drastic00 said:
Cool :thumbup::beer:
The no battery part is just for driver install, which is fiddly for this phone. Sometimes trial and error is a factor.
The baseband you have now would be the one you had previously. If it works, no problem. The one in the v28B pack is supposed to be optimized for the v28B .bin file, but hey, whatever works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im only getting E for data. i tried to flash a baseband meant for at&t but it says failed after about 90 seconds. still no 4g though. i did flash the xbsav8 before i set my apn up. i might just go with an optimusRS rom again though. i was happy with it. probably not jellycream this time.
Baseband fail after 80 or so sec is normal. It means it worked. Check your baseband in android settings/about phone.
You might try speed test app to compare actual speed. ATT 4G icon is a lie on this phone IMO.
Now that your pc is set up you can flash any P925/920 bin. Kdz files (combo of bin and fls, there is another tool for flashing those files) can be extracted into separate bin and fls, but I have not done it. The advantage is you can flash baseband separately.
Xbsalls vX3D (see his page) with the P925G fls file gives me 4G icon on Straight Talk in the US, but I like his vR3D better, and I can't tell a speed difference, honestly.
I have not actually measured the speed in either, however.
And for either of those ROMs, you must flash his large partition version of v28B first...very important.
oh its definitely like 2g speeds. its pretty slow. i tried using my providers app and website and its saying the phone i have isnt registered to them anymore so it might be just that. if thats the case ill just bring it in so they can do that for me. when i rooted it the first time i wasnt getting any data and they had to re-register the phone to get it to work right.
my baseband says OMAPP4430/XMM6260. for comparison and/or confirm differences. i have no idea lol.
side question though; my sdcard still has recovery files for the optimusRS v1 rom i had on it. i really liked the setup i had when i made the recovery for it. Im tempted to reinstall it but im really not too sure if itll work or worse harm my phone again.
Lots of variables, but you must remember that xbsall's P940 recovery app he he uses has recovery in system partition. The recovery you had before was probably in recovery partition. They write restores from two different places. Probably you would get an error, but not positive. Understanding that may take some Googling...
If you try it, back up before trying to restore the old backup. Then you could hopefully restore if the restore fails, know what I mean?
Probably the safest thing is to use the all in one tool to install recovery in recovery partition and use that one to restore backup.
I do know when I have restored backups, I have wiped Dalvik, Cache, and Factory Reset (in recovery) and then restore. Then it works. Some people wipe system too.
You can usually flash to recover from a problem, but then you have to set your phone up again
Well I recovered everything. All settings and personalized stuff. Just everything. Everything is running normal again. Just now my data is saying im using an h20 microcell instead of just H20 with a 4g connection. This 2g stuff is for the birds. I'm almost thinking the firmware we flashed has something to do with it. The phone is functional though. Just slow and no mms. I haven't been able to find much on the forums about it. I'll poke around more tomorrow.
Sent from my LG-P920 using xda app-developers app
I'd try another baseband.
There will be some seemingly obtuse questions in this post, so forgive me in advance.
First up, have the Dev Edition Moto X on Verizon. Bootloader is unlocked, CWM is installed, and device is rooted. After reading around, it appears I need to flash all of the stock files before I apply the OTA. I haven't been able to find any obvious copies of these around the internet, are they contained the the latest .sbf (such as the one off droid-developers.com)? I've seen some references to a "mfastboot", is there an issue with the most current fastboot contained in the Android SDK? I am planning on flashing stock recovery, system, and boot. Are these the correct files? Lastly, I've backed everything up for obvious reasons, but is flashing the system.img gonna blow away data? Should I wipe data before bumping to 4.4? Thanks for the help!
Alrighty, trial and error has gotten me loaded up on 4.4. Had to flash boot, recovery, system, modem, and fsg but was finally able to get the OTA to apply. Unfortunately I am now without root or a custom recovery. Such is the price of progress I suppose.
Hello,
I've always used my Nexus 6 decrypted since i bought it. I've used some Custom ROMs and went back to stock again
Now, with Android 6.0.1 i went and flashed the stock images but i completely forgot about about encryption. Since the kernel changed i flashed the original boot.img and then franco Kernel after. It was fine until now and i didn't remember about it.
Lately i've been getting some hicups and lag. I updated my kernel to the latest r37 and searched the XDA forums for someone having the same issues as myself but i didn't find anyone or at least with similiar issues. That's when i remembered about encryption. It encrypted (obviously!) after flashing the original boot.img and it's probably what's causing the issue.
I've searched around about doing some TWRP backups (never used in the past tbh) but since i have so many stuff already i don't feel like having everything installed from base and restoring (too many SMS and takes ages to restore...) but i still have some doubts that i couldn't find.
My main questions are:
- are TWRP backups reliable?
- can i backup encrypted and restore to decrypted?
- To decrypt, can i just make fastboot format userdata and then restore backup? or do i need to start normally to create partitions?
Those are my main questions about my problem. If someone can help me (i'm sure someone will) i'd be very grateful!
twrp backups are reliable, and have been backing up/restoring for years now. can you backup encrypted but restore decrypted, i have no idea. when you decrypt, itll delete every single file in your phone, so you would have to move the backup to your computer, then back aftet decrypting. and no, to decrypt you need to flash a kernel that allows for decryption, then format user data(which will remove all your files as well).
simms22 said:
twrp backups are reliable, and have been backing up/restoring for years now. can you backup encrypted but restore decrypted, i have no idea. when you decrypt, itll delete every single file in your phone, so you would have to move the backup to your computer, then back aftet decrypting. and no, to decrypt you need to flash a kernel that allows for decryption, then format user data(which will remove all your files as well).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reply,
I know about the kernels and i know about moving the files (makes sense after all )
I'm just worried about backing up encrypted and then restoring decrypted.
Another quick question, when restoring is it just userdata or system as well ?
informaniako said:
thanks for the reply,
I know about the kernels and i know about moving the files (makes sense after all )
I'm just worried about backing up encrypted and then restoring decrypted.
Another quick question, when restoring is it just userdata or system as well ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just dont know if itll work.
its restoring EVERYTHING. userdata, system, boot.img.. its like you take a photo of everything on your phone right now. then restore it in a year, and itll be exactly like right before you backed it up. exactly.
Restoring a backup of an encrypted data partition will result in you having bit for bit the same as what you backed up, encryption included.
informaniako said:
Hello,
I've always used my Nexus 6 decrypted since i bought it. I've used some Custom ROMs and went back to stock again
Now, with Android 6.0.1 i went and flashed the stock images but i completely forgot about about encryption. Since the kernel changed i flashed the original boot.img and then franco Kernel after. It was fine until now and i didn't remember about it.
Lately i've been getting some hicups and lag. I updated my kernel to the latest r37 and searched the XDA forums for someone having the same issues as myself but i didn't find anyone or at least with similiar issues. That's when i remembered about encryption. It encrypted (obviously!) after flashing the original boot.img and it's probably what's causing the issue.
I've searched around about doing some TWRP backups (never used in the past tbh) but since i have so many stuff already i don't feel like having everything installed from base and restoring (too many SMS and takes ages to restore...) but i still have some doubts that i couldn't find.
My main questions are:
- are TWRP backups reliable?
- can i backup encrypted and restore to decrypted?
- To decrypt, can i just make fastboot format userdata and then restore backup? or do i need to start normally to create partitions?
Those are my main questions about my problem. If someone can help me (i'm sure someone will) i'd be very grateful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restoring those sms may just cause you to have issues. Keep that in mind. Restoring system data can cause things to be come unstable.
The data is still just data.. Encryption only effects how it stored... It can still be read and written if you have the key.
With encrypted can you take a photo off your phone? Yes.
In the same way you can make a backup, then pull it off your phone and store it on your computer. The encryption just means that when that data is stored, its scrambled.... When its read blocks of scrambled data are read into memory, and the key is used to unscramble them... The data is the data though, whether its been put through encryption or not.