Nexus 6: How to Delete a Nandroid Backup

To end our Nandroid backup series, I wanted to talk about how to delete your previously created backups from the internal storage of your Nexus 6.

In my previous tutorials I try my best to get you into the habit of creating fresh backups whenever you remember. I know how important the data on smartphones can be for some people so having a backup that is as up to date as possible can be very helpful to a lot of people. The thing about creating a lot of backups is that you begin to run out of space.

It can take a while before this happens if you don’t store much on your device or it can happen very quickly if you install a lot of apps and games.

Either way, deleting those old backups are important but finding out how that is done can be confusing. There isn’t a ‘Delete’ option from within the TWRP main menu so you have to dig into the menu options a little bit in order to actually delete a Nandroid backup. Now, you could download a file explorer and locate where TWRP stores the backups but I find it much quicker and easier to just boot up into the recovery mode and delete it from there. So let’s find out how this is done!

Nexus 6 Delete Backup

1. Boot the Nexus 6 into Recovery Mode
2. Tap on the ‘Restore’ Option
3. Then Tap on the Nandroid Backup That You Want to Delete
4. Look in the Middle of the Screen, on the Right
5. Then Tap on the ‘Delete Backup’ Option
6. When Ready to Delete, Swipe the Arrow at the Bottom to the Right
7. Wait Until it Completely Deletes the Backup
8. Tap on the Home Button at the Bottom
9. Tap on the ‘Reboot’ Option
10. Then Tap on the ‘System’ Option

Explanation

As I said, getting into the habit of creating Nandroid backups is important, but you also want to get into the habit of rotating out old backups. I like to keep two backups on my devices(the newest one and the one before that). This way, if there was something wrong with the backup, like it had become corrupt or something, then I could always choose one of the older ones. the decision is up to you though. I’ve never had a backup go corrupt on me before, I just don’t want to risk it.

So when you are ready to delete a back(which I generally do before creating a backup), you’ll need to boot up into the Nexus 6 recovery mode. From here, you actually want to tap on the ‘Restore’ option. You’ll see a list of your previously created backups here, and you need to tap on the one you want to delete. After you tap on the backup you want to delete, look in the middle of the screen, on the right side, and you should see a ‘Delete Backup’ option. Go ahead and tap this button and it will ask you to confirm your choice.

When you are certain this is the one you want to delete, swipe the blue arrow, that you see at the bottom of the screen, all the way to the right. It shouldn’t take very long at all to delete this backup and once you do, you’ll see a new button appear toward the bottom that has the word ‘Back’ on it. You can tap that if you want, but you probably want to tap the Home button that you see at the bottom of the screen. This will take you back to the TWRP main menu and you have two choices here, you can either create your new backup(which is what I do after deleting one), or you can follow this tutorial and simply reboot back into the Android OS(aka the System option).

If you have any questions or get stuck at any point during this tutorial, please leave a question at the bottom of this article. I might not be familiar with the same issue that you have come across but I will always try my best to help out in any way that I can.