Seedvault restore when USB drive not recognized

So I just flashed my FP4 from 2.3 to 3.0 and (which btw worked really well thanks to the excellent steps from @AlphaElwedritsch, thanks!) and wanted to restore from seedvault backup from my USB drive.

Unfortunately at the start wizard, the usb drive was not recognized and so I could not restore my backup. After a restart of the phone the usb drive was still not recognized, but I did get a “problem with drive” notification which asked me to wipe the drive.

So I backed up the files from the drive to my PC and formatted the drive while connected back on my phone. After the formatting, the drive was recognized.

Connect it back to the PC and move the seedvault backup on the drive again.

But then, how to start the restore wizard again?!? Found out on the github FAQ that you can start the wizard again by typing this in the dialer: *#*#7378673#*#* or use the vanity number *#*#RESTORE#*#* by typing the letters in your dialer.

The wizard also found the drive and now the restore is running!

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Awesome, thanks for sharing!

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It happens again and again that USB sticks are suddenly no longer recognized or the data is reported as corrupted, especially when the stick is used on different devices.

I favor the Seedvault data backup on USB stick. Therefore, this article is very valuable information for me. Thank you very much @Simon

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Has anyone tried to connect an external SSD (exFAT file system) to the smartphone via an OTG USB cable and make a backup that way? That should also work, right? An SSD is more durable than a USB stick.

Hello @Barry,
your thesis is a blanket statement that isn’t generally valid, because there’re such and such USB sticks.

This is the same as saying that inferior or superior flash chips are installed in USB flash drives. Accordingly, the durability is different and especially the read and write speeds can differ significantly from each other.

Yes, my external SSD 128GB with exFAT file system and USB-C OTG adapter to USB 3.1 was immediately recognized as mobile storage by an iodéOS 2.5 system and my file manager had access as well as other apps.