Where's database info saved?

[gorman]

In the future I might considering flashing my smartphone to Lineage OS or udpating it to Nougat (Nexus 6P currently on Marshmallow, as I dread to lose Xposed).

Now I have over 600 albums locally cached on the smartphone and I would very much like to avoid needing to recache them all. I know where the music files are saved but I don't know where the info about them having been already cached is located.

Anybody can help? Basically: how can I backup my current cache situation, in order to restore it after clean flashing?

Thanks in advance.

[gorman]

Is there a different channel of communication where it might be easier to get answers? Just asking, maybe I've missed it (thinking Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

[daneren2005]

I don't know exactly where all of that cached information is stored since I just use an API to get an app-specific internal directory to write that stuff to. It is probably different on every device.

[acroyear]

When it comes to Android apps, "it's complicated". Generally, the client makes API calls for storing the data and the O/S handles the rest, so it really can move around depending on the platform, not just for the Android version, but even for the vendor who may make changes.

Similarly, the cached files the app downloads can be stored on the SD Card in a 'public' folder (accessible by other apps) prior to Android 4...but from 4 onward, all apps keep their own data secure from each other at all times (in line with what IOS has had for a long time), which also allows the Android system preferences system to delete all the files when the app is wiped or un-installed. This is true whether you put the cache on the SD card or the main memory. There is very little control over it.

So yeah, the idea of modifying the DB from the outside isn't really something Android, as a platform, likes to encourage.

As such, no, it isn't likely that the cache data for files would survive a migration. Each installation is independent, and its is an intentional security decision to keep it that way.

[TheScoop]

If you are rooted, then you _might_ have luck using TitaniumBackup to preserver the cache/backup before formatting or switching phones.