ClockWorkMod Instructions

Navigating through the menus

Different devices have different numbers of physical buttons– power buttons, menu buttons, home buttons, back buttons, volume keys, etc.

Using Physical Keys and Buttons

Typically, the volume keys are used to move up and down the menu and, if available, a home button is used to select the item. If the home button does not exist, the power button is frequently used to make the selection. On devices in which there is a home button, the power button is usually used to go “back a menu”. On devices without a home button, there is usually a “++++Go Back++++” option at the bottom of the list.

Touch options

On newer versions of ClockworkMod recovery, menu items can be selected simply by touching on the item with a finger.

Backup and Restore Your Device

Making a backup

Before you begin, ensure you have sufficient space for your backup.

Make sure that you do not have a password or screen lock pin when you backup your data

1. Boot into Recovery Mode
2. Select Backup and Restore
3. Select Backup
4. Follow on screen directions to complete the backup.

Restoring a backup

1. Boot into Recovery Mode
2. Select Backup and Restore
3. Select Restore (or Advanced restore if you wish to restore only a portion of your device.)
4. Follow on screen directions to complete the backup.
5. Select your ‘Device-ID’ from the list (You will most likely only have one device listed)
6. Select the backup you want to restore (Latest should be last on list)
7. Follow on screen directions to complete
8. Wait for it to complete.

Additional Commands

Most commands are fairly self-explanatory. Here are a few, with some definitions.

• reboot system now — this will reboot the system into its normal boot mode
• install zip from sdcard — This is used to flash a .zip file, located on the /sdcard partition, which can be used to install new versions of CyanogenMod among other things.
• apply update from sdcard –Installs the update.zip located in the root of your SD card
• wipe data/factory reset — Obvious – clears everything (except your SD card, hopefully)
• wipe cache partition — erases and formats /cache
  • apply /sdcard/update.zip — Installs the update.zip located in the root of your SD card
  • choose zip from sdcard — Lets you browse for and pick the update or installation .zip file
  • toggle signature verification — Turns zip package signature requirement on/off
  • toggle script asserts
  • advanced restore — Allows you to select a backup, as well as select which portions of the backup to restore (such as the /boot, /system, /data, /cache, /sd-ext)
• mounts and storage — this allows you to mount or unmount the various partitions. Advanced users can access files on mounted partitions through adb.
  • unmount /cache
  • mount /data
  • unmount /sdcard
  • mount /system
  • mount /sd-ext
  • format /cache
  • format /data
  • format /sdcard
  • format /system
  • format /sd-ext
  • mount USB storage
• advanced — more advanced options
  • reboot recovery — reboot the device back into recovery mode
  • reboot bootloader — reboot the device to the bootloader
  • power off — power down the device
  • wipe dalvik cache — wipe temporary files used by the Dalvik virtual machine. The Dalvik virtual machine is the ‘sandboxed environment’ which runs Android apps written in Java. This is generally safe to perform.
  • report error — copies recovery.log to /sdcard/clockworkmod/. This log can then be submitted to developers using the ROM Manager application.
  • key test — allows you to test your hardware keys on the device
  • show log — outputs the current recovery.log to the screen
  • partition </path> — allows you to create an ext3 or ext4 partition on your SD card. Allowed sizes range from 128M to 4096M.
  • toggle loki support — enables flashing kernels on some Samsung devices
  • wipe battery stats — if you are having misreported battery strength, it may be useful to remove the battery stats history file [this feature was removed beginning with version 6.0.2.0 due to user misunderstanding over its use]
  • fix permissions — resets system permissions back to their default values [this feature was removed beginning with version 6.0.3.5 due to its placebo effect as a cure-all]

Special Notes

Unofficials: Some devices do not have an official ClockworkMod recovery available. If this is the case for your device, you can often find unofficial recoveries on one of the various Android forum websites. Unofficial simply means they are not maintained by CyanogenMod and assistance may not be available by CyanogenMod team members. Aside from ClockworkMod, other unofficial recoveries include, but are not limited to TWRP and Philz-Touch.

Encryption: ClockworkMod does not currently support reading encrypted partitions. It therefore cannot create backups of an encrypted /data partition and will report an error when attempting to perform a full backup. If you would like to keep using ClockworkMod, the only option is to format /data, which will wipe all of your apps and settings. Alternatively, TWRP supports reading from and writing to encrypted /data partitions.