How the fuck do you backup enough shit on your phone for a rom swap...

>without root you can't backup shit
Obviously you have root. Also various apps can backup their own or various shared data.

> even if you can it's only available on manufacturers rom so you are sol if you switch
If you switch, it's obviously your fucking job to pick a ROM with root / another backup method or deploy magisk or whatever?

Apart from that, even then it's not true - if you got a generally unlocked phone, you don't need the ROM to backup. You can use TWRP.

i mean that it will fuck the phone up if used on a different rom, right?

>xiaomi requires shitty waiting period
Yes, that's a known "feature" and you generally just wait and then unlock.

IIRC you also had the Chinese dev rom for builtin root, but of course you wanna just unlock the phone.

i followed the unlock steps and it never asked for a letter to xiaomi. does it meen i dont have to wait or will it ask for it at the very last step?

Root the device and use oandbackup for apps.

>photos, files, etc.
This is what your mSD card is for. If you have a shit device which doesn't have mSD just send every single folder you want to keep to your PC over KDE Connect.

no
you can backup your lineage/stock whatever, then do a wipe, install pajeetdeodexed360rom, wipe, restore your backup and it's like nothing happened
TWRP backups don't include personal data if you have a data/media storage device though, in which case you need to use the ol' copy/paste to save those

well it does have an sd card slot but then what purpose does my 64gb of internal storage serves then?
>TWRP backups don't include personal data
what does it include then?

> a letter to xiaomi
What guide includes THAT?

Seems like you picked up some nonsense, why not just follow the instructions on Xiaomi's website (miui.com/unlock)? It's not that hard.

Either way, with most phones [particularly those that were intended for China's domestic market] the unlocker will tell you to wait a good while when you make the actual attempt.

k then. it does pass everything for me and gives the unlock anyway screen with wipe confirmations. i guess im good then. i guess the letter is when your account is denied completely.

>what does it include then?
everything except for stuff like your photos and music, so pretty much the entire rom + app configs/data
see twrp.me/faq/backupexclusions.html

thanks. i guess i need to learn what partitions contain what to fully understand this shit

Yes, just run the unlocker then. If it passes, you got an unlocked phone and can go and deploy TWRP -> ROM -> Magisk, or whatever you please.

If it tells you to wait x hours instead, you're probably not getting around that and will just have to wait.

thanks user. ill try it tomorow so wish me luck!

Good luck then.

BTW read en.miui.com/thread-246705-1-1.html again if you got time. It's also linked from miui.com/unlock, but I guess you might not be logged in to see that link right now.

the best way to understand how it works is by just installing twrp, flash a rom, install some apps and configure some things, add some music/photos or whatever and make a backup then restore it
after that check the end result by yourself

thanks. i also read there is another way to unlock via some sort of mi flash utility, is this true?i wish i had a spare phone for such fun. i really dont want to do such shit on my main.

You can also do adb pull /dev/block/mmcblk0 backup and it'll create a raw backup of the entire internal storage. To open it:
$ fdisk -l backup
Note the 'start' of the largest partition and the sector size
$ bc

>what purpose does my 64gb of internal storage serves then?
Software

To backup the system image(including all installed apps and settings) - twrp.
Just for apps and their settings - titanium backup.
Rooting gives you WAY more power to do backups.