You can only create so many Nandroid backups before you run out of storage so lets talk about how you can delete those Galaxy S6 backups.
When introducing you to TWRP and how to create a backup, I try to get you in the habit of creating your backups often. The more I write about Android news and hear users reporting bad experiences from updates, the more I realize how important a user’s data is to them. I literally get insulted by people when I suggest that they do a factory reset even though I’ve seen this help countless people.
People just don’t like the idea of losing their data and having to set their phone back up again. Accepting Android updates are one thing. While there is some risk to them, they are far a few between.
When we start doing the extreme modifications that I talk about here on Android Explained, the likelihood of something going wrong increased tremendously. I’ve been doing this stuff for a few years and even I goof up from time to time. We’re all human and even if we don’t make the mistake, the developer could. We just can’t count on everything working 100% of the time without issues. Every now and then you’ll probably run into a bootloop and if you do, you will be thankful that you created that backup beforehand.
Galaxy S6 Delete Backup
- Boot the Galaxy S6 into Recovery Mode
- Tap on the ‘Restore’ Option
- Tap on the Nandroid Backup You Want to Delete
- Look in the Middle of the Screen, Toward the Right
- Tap on the ‘Delete Backup’ Button You See
- When Ready to Delete, Swipe the Arrow at the Bottom to the Right
- Wait Until the Backup is Deleted
- Then Tap on the Home Button at the Bottom
- Tap on the ‘Reboot’ Option
- Then tap on the ‘System’ Option
Explanation
Just like I mentioned, if you get in the habit of creating a backup you will start to run out of space and this is why you need to know how to delete them. The delete feature is hidden inside the restore menu so it’s not exactly as straight forward as one would think. What I do, is I keep 2 backups on my device at all times. When I go to create a third backup, I delete my oldest backup first. This way I keep things rotated and fresh and always have a secondary backup just in case something goes wrong with my latest one(data corruption).
So to start, you’ll need to boot up into the Galaxy S6 recovery mode and tap on the restore button as soon as you get to the TWRP main menu. From here, you’ll see a list of all your available backups to choose from. Tap on the oldest one(or whichever one you want to delete) but don’t swipe the blue arrow when you get to the next screen. Not yet. You have to first tap on the Delete Backup button that you’ll see in the middle of the screen. Then when you are ready, you can swipe the arrow to the right. The deletion process should be quick but if you have tens of gigs worth of data in your backup, it could take some waiting to complete.
Once you have deleted the backup you wanted to, you can go ahead and create your new backup or you could just go back to the main menu of TWRP(by hitting the Home button) and then tapping on the Reboot option that you see at the bottom. From here, you’ll get a list of various modes you can reboot into. If you’re wanting to go back into the regular Android system then tap on the System option that you see here. You’ll see your Galaxy S6 reboot instantly and then you’ll see the Samsung boot animation before you are taken to the lock screen.
If you have any questions or if you run into any issues during this tutorial, go ahead and leave a comment at the bottom and ask away. If it is a bug that you came across, try to be as detailed as possible(write out the word for word error message) and I will do my best to help out in any way that I can. I might not be able to reproduce the same bug that you came across but I will research the issue and hopefully find a solution for you.
