Hey dianehelen,
How has your experience been on the tablet since you wiped cache partition? Have you found any differences in performance or battery?
I was never able to successfully wipe the cache partion, it errored and had that heck of a time getting it back, until I finally did the FR and went thru all its issues. But since then, Oh YES. Its very snappy, responsive and the wierd issues I was having seem to have resovled.
I too have a Note 10.1 2014, and been hit with poor battery performance recently, I blame the heavy Touchwiz firmware. I researched new batteries and how to install, after reading the comments and reviews about those batteries, I came away with the conclusion that the newer aftermarket batteries were not much of and improvement. Some batteries were not the actual mAh stated on the battery. I am not at the point of getting a new device yet, but would like to, it's just not economical for me to do so.
Always your choice, but my original battery was barely getting 4+ hours. The battery I got from Amazon came with great directions, and even the little tool needed to open the case (the hardest part) I am the software.tech in my house, but Im not as good with tools and mechanical stuff, so my husband did the actual hardware work, changing the battery. Had one small issue first time thru, in that one of the ribbon cables did not seat all the way, so we (he) had to open it up again, but after that it booted just fine, and now I get close to 8 hours of use
As for TWRP you seemed to have backed up to your internal storage, is it a possibility that you were looking in your external while you were trying to restore?
No , by the time I tried to do the restore, I had deleted the b/u from internal, and (thought) I had sucessfully did another b/u and properly saved it to external, who knows what malfunctioned there
You did say that you deleted the file in the Backup folder, since you did everything in recovery before a reboot, the backup file might have still showed up in a temp folder in cache partition somewhere. A good rule of thumb is to go to your file where you backed up and verify that the file is in place before you begin wiping anything, I'll even go into restore to be sure I can find it there and that the file is the appropriate size 4-6gb.
Yeah, that would have been a good idea, but after the annoying time consuming ordeal of trying to find how to delete the b/u that took up all my available internal storage, and then doing one to external, I guess I neglected that logical step, live and learn ey?
During first boot after wiping things in recovery, your system is rebuilding your partitions, system apps, and other system data, this information is pulled from folders within the system partition this process takes time. Another good rule of thumb, is to allow your device 5-10 mins to startup after you do anything in recovery. Even after the device loads the homescreen, I let it sit a few minutes to load other apps and what not, in the background. This is the time I usually reboot and walk away, otherwise the temptation is too great to fiddle with the device.
The problem was the cache wipe produced an error, that I could not get out from, so after doing the FR, and the reboot, I only saw a partial screen begin, logo, blue circle, then blue circle stopped midway, and just saw SAMSUNG on the screen. I would have expected either a wait, or in progress message, to cue me to wait. So my thought was it was hung.
The good thing about older Samsung devices they are almost unbrickable, you could always use the XDA website to get information on using Odin to go back to stock recovery and even putting on the latest factory fresh TouchWiz firmware. I used to have the latest Cyanogen Mod image , with the latest TWRP recovery. I missed the function of the sPen. So I put Touchwiz back on, with root I wasn't able to get the 5.1.1 OTA update until I used Odin.
I have found in the past, that xda is not very helpful, at least to me, I posted my issues about this on there, and as of yesteday got zero replies. I have always found AC is the best , smartest, and most helpful. I guess had the tech gods not opened up, and I did not eventually get to the new setup screen I may have gone there, or here even to get some guidance, on getting back my tablet via odin
I'm glad your happy with were your at and have a working device, How much Screen on time and battery life do you have?
I am getting about 6-8 hours, with the lower number if Im on screen, and doing screen intensive activities, photo editing, videos, music, etc. On the higher side if just reading stuff internmittently, chatting, etc. For now Im happy to have it back, and able to use. I still alternate during the day with an Acer Chromebook. I am old, and retired, so Im home most of the time, doing something or other on a tablet, or computer, or chromebook. The chromebook is a wonderful addition, and fill in, and the battery on that thing is amazing. But functionally it cant do as much as this tablet. 
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram