How to Backup & Restore Official Firmware on any Espressif ESP8266 & ESP32

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  1. Download and install Python 2.x or 3.x from https://www.python.org/downloads
  2. Download Esptool from https://github.com/espressif/esptool/releases.
  3. Extract the contents of esptool compressed file to c:\esptool.
  4. Open Command Prompt ( Start > Run > cmd ) and navigate to esptool folder cd c:/esptool .

Install the esptool by issuing the commands below.

python setup.py install

pip install pyserial

Change COM3 to your own Port

For  1M Flash:
python esptool.py -b 115200 --port COM3 read_flash 0x000000 0x100000 flash_1M.bin 
python esptool.py -b 115200 --port COM3 write_flash --flash_freq 80m 0x000000 flash_1M.bin 

For  4M Flash:
python esptool.py -b 115200 --port COM3 read_flash 0x00000 0x400000 flash_4M.bin
python esptool.py -b 115200 --port COM3 write_flash --flash_freq 80m 0x000000 flash_4M.bin

that is all
you should get something like this for the 4M flash

D:\SONOFF\ESPTool\esptool-2.6\esptool-2.6>python esptool.py -b 115200 --port COM3 read_flash 0x00000 0x400000 flash_4M.bin
esptool.py v2.6
Serial port COM3
Connecting....
Detecting chip type... ESP8266
Chip is ESP8266EX
Features: WiFi
MAC: 80:7d:3a:33:xx:xx
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
4194304 (100 %)
4194304 (100 %)
Read 4194304 bytes at 0x0 in 402.0 seconds (83.5 kbit/s)...
Hard resetting via RTS pin...

to write flash you need to erase it first by

esptool.py erase_flash

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More information

esptool.py

A Python-based, open source, platform independent, utility to communicate with the ROM bootloader in Espressif ESP8266 & ESP32 chips.

esptool.py was started by Fredrik Ahlberg (@themadinventor) as an unofficial community project. It is now also supported by Espressif. Current primary maintainer is Angus Gratton (@projectgus).

esptool.py is Free Software under a GPLv2 license.

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  • Take care when you backup, both Sonoff POW and POW R2 have a 4M flash and not 1M .

  • When restoring your device always use the SAME FILE you backed up from that device otherwise it will not work .

another interesting site

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Flashing ESP8266 Firmware using esptool.py, run on “Linux” with Python 2.7.

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Another good video for Windows but in “Thai Language”

this person had many interesting videos related to Blynk you can find here

latest video in our forum @pasagame
**** Earned 'Popular Link’

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Another good video showing how to Backup Firmware for ESP32 & ESP8266

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@Ze_Pico Thank you.

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Now you can use " TASMOTIZER " to
Automatic backup of current ESP image before flashing: in case you want to return to manufacturer firmware