Hi. I just upgraded to 20171011_s12v55_jk_3m.zip, using SPFlashTool,
but did not flash the user data, because I want to keep my settings,
and I did put TWRP in the recovery partition too.
I cleared all cache partitions / cache data via TWRP right afterwards.

But now all apps crash. Even Launcher3 and Play Store.
I managed to get Launcher3 to work, by clearing its data completely.
Which of course deletes my icon layout, groups, widgets and background etc.
[UPDATE:] I now managed to get Play Store to work too, by deactivating it, which told me that it wanted to restore it to the factory version and uninstall the update! So after clearing all data for both the Play Store and Play Services, and reactivating the Play Services (which also activated the Play Store, without asking me), I could start Play Store again.
The problem is that the other apps (e.g. Signal Messenger) fail too. Even when I delete all their data!
I would be forced to uninstall and reinstall them to get them to work. Which is just about equivalent to wiping the user data completely. :/ [/UPDATE]

I have no idea why this is. Shouldn’t Android automatically upgrade that stuff?
I mean, after all, it is meant to work when upgraded via OTA, isn’t it?

I know that when I flash the user data partition too, things “work”.
But all my data is completely gone.
Which makes it pointless, since I will NOT go through all the thousands of settings I configured since I bought the phone!

I want both an upgrade to Android 7, AND keep my settings.
Especially my messenger history and e-mail and cSIPsimple phone settings etc. Because those took forever to get working juust right.
It would take me months to get those working properly again!

Can it be done?

Are you seriously telling us that you have no backup of your user data and settings?
How careless can one be??? On EVERY computer/phone/tablet, it is ESSENTIAL to make regular backups. Otherwise it is not a matter of "whether", but of "when" you are going to lose your data.

Sorry, we can not provide support for issues with third party recovery. If you use original recovery and also flash user data the update to android 7 will work without problems.

frofa wrote:

Are you seriously telling us that you have no backup of your user data and settings?

Of course I have backups! But why are you such a dick?

I automatically mirror all my data to my server using Syncthing, where it is backed up for up to a year, with up to 22(!) full copies!
On top, I use Titanium Backup, and I later used SPFlashTool to make a backup of all partitions too, so I could go back to Android 6 if necessary. Duh.

When I said that all data is gone, I obviously meant on the phone. Not in the universe!
The problem is not lost data. The problem is that upgrading and keeping the data on the phone has been made mutually exclusive by Blackview when it shouldn’t!

blackview_admin wrote:

Sorry, we can not provide support for issues with third party recovery. If you use original recovery and also flash user data the update to android 7 will work without problems.

This IS an original recovery!
And you know it. Since you read the flash file name in my comment: 20171011_s12v55_jk_3m.zip
A flash file which you yourself posted!
So why are you lying to me?

And yeah, of course it will work "without problems" if I flash my data partition and hence delete all the data that was on there! Duh. But if my data is gone, that is not "working without problems"! It cannot be, that I have to choose between updating and keeping my data!

BTW, I solved the problem now.

1. I flashed the upgrade via SPFlashTool.
2. Then I flashed my backup of the data partition.
3. Finally I flashed the newest TWRP, booted the phone into recovery, turned it off, then flashed TWRP again, since that is apparently necessary for it to stick.
4. Now the trick: When booting, I immediately opened the pull-down and went into the settings, before even handling the crashing Launcher3 or any other crashing apps. (If you can’t do things because the constant Play Services crash error dialogs, just be quick, and walk through the menus in-between closing the last dialog and the next one popping up. Yes, it’s a sub-second gap, but it’s enough.)
5. There, I cleared the settings for Launcher3 and NovaLauncher, and made NovaLauncher the default.
6. I then also cleared the settings for the Play Store and Play Services.
7. And, important: I disabled Play Store and Play Settings. This prompted me to uninstall any updates. Which I did. Then I enabled them both again. So now the stock ROM versions of the apps are active again.
8. From there I started Titanium Backup, and restored all the apps and their settings/data! This made most of the apps work again!
9. Then, after the re-boot, I restored only the settings/data of all apps a second time! And after another reboot, this made all the apps work again!

Now after the regular Play Store login, Play Store app upgrades, and a reboot, everything worked fine again.

This is proof that it IS possible to keep all the data even on an upgrade. Thanks to the awesome Titanium Backup and a few smart moves.
Blackview just didn’t bother to make this ROM properly to account for keeping the data.