flashing any rom breaks phone

[thebullfrog]

This might be long but I'm trying to be detailed so bears with me.

A few weeks back I tried updating to a newer version of Codename Android. Failed horribly touch screen wouldn't even work so I nandroided back and got on with life. Tonight I've tried 4 times to flash CNA 2 but it never works right. First time all my apps and settings were still there like I never flashed, but it was clearly the new version with all the features. However none of the apps would launch and I could not connect to Google. in fact it never even asked me to sign in to my account. I tried to log into the market but Play would launch and close in less than a second.

Next I did a full factory reset and tried from scratch. Again it never prompted me to sign in to Google and wouldn't connect to data. I tried a couple more times to no avail. It seems every time I try and flash any new ROM it completely breaks my phone and I have to nandroid back. I have redownloaded different versions of the ROM I follow all the proper steps (wipe dalvik etc 3 times) and get the same results every time. Won't even try to sign into Google and I get locked out of data, can't restore apps, etc . Anyone have any clue why?

On a related note how do you delete old nandroid backups?

 

[thebullfrog]

P.S. I figured out I can delete old Nandroid backups through ROMmanager thankfully so that frees up a ton of space. Also I did at least get it to successfully flash Matr1x 19, and holy effing carp is it fast Now just need to not be stuck on an old ROM....

 

[thebullfrog]

146 views and nobody has a theory to chime in with? Man, that is far less than encouraging......

 

[chud]

Does that ROM require you to flash GAPPS separately?

 

[Paul627g]

In the past it did but most of the roms now have gapps included

 

[thebullfrog]

2.0 had em separate or at least for me it did lol.

 

[chud]

I'd start over and try flashing GAPPS separately.

 

[thebullfrog]

Thats the problem, I cant flash the gapps. It just doesn't work. It's the kind of thing you'd chalk up to a random bad flash, which is what I assumed at first, but it happens every time. My phone just doesn't wanna give up it's current ROM lol

 

[skinneejay]

Have you tried another rom? Are you flashing through ROM manager or CWM?

 

[chud]

Thats the problem, I cant flash the gapps. It just doesn't work. It's the kind of thing you'd chalk up to a random bad flash, which is what I assumed at first, but it happens every time. My phone just doesn't wanna give up it's current ROM lol

like jay said, how are you flashing? i cant see gapps not sticking going through CWM.

 

[thebullfrog]

CWM. I havent tried another ROM yet, but I have been thinking about just trying another random ROM to see what happens.

 

[thebullfrog]

GOT IT!! I don't know how or why, but after doing all of the exact same things I did before, it finally decided to work. Almost flawlessly, a few minor hiccups but they seem to have smoothed over so far after a couple of reboots. I don't know what happened differently that didn't happen the last 400 times I tried to flash a ROM, but it did. To be honest I'm kinda wondering if something isn't slightly borked in my CWM installation. I did once have CWM spontaneously disappear on me one day. One day CWM/ Recovery was there, the next it was just randomly gone and I had to reinstall it via ROMmanager. Maybe something just didn't go right again. Anywho, I'm running CNA 2.0 with Matr1x 19 and so far it seems to be working great.

 

[skinneejay]

Glad things are working for you now. I always use CWM. I stay way from ROM manager. Nothing against it. Enjoy.

 

[thebullfrog]

Oh I never use ROM manager either. The only reason I have it is I needed it to reinstall CWM once when CWM decided to go AWOL on me and it was the easiest fix.

 

[Skunkape60]

If your not being asked to sign in the first time after flashing you are not properly wiping your phone.

____________________
Just Flash It !!!

 

[thebullfrog]

Yeah because booting into recovery and selecting "Wipe Data/ Factory Reset" followed by "Wipe Dalvik", and "Wipe Cache" 3 times each is not properly wiping my phone....

 

[Paul627g]

Yeah because booting into recovery and selecting "Wipe Data/ Factory Reset" followed by "Wipe Dalvik", and "Wipe Cache" 3 times each is not properly wiping my phone....

Check around/Google em but many of the kernel devs like morfic (Trinity kernel) and others have put out "custom wipe" packages to use in CWM/TWRP recovery. They do a much better job of wiping your device.

Here is one in particular I use always before I flash a kernel... Its only for dalvik cache...

Dalvik Wiper (flash that first in CWM then follow up with kernels)

There are data & cache partition wipes, I got em somewhere I need to dig em up.

Edit: Here is those wipes I was talking about.. These seem to clean things up better for some reason..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1225630

 

[Skunkape60]

Check around/Google em but many of the kernel devs like morfic (Trinity kernel) and others have put out "custom wipe" packages to use in CWM/TWRP recovery. They do a much better job of wiping your device.

Here is one in particular I use always before I flash a kernel... Its only for dalvik cache...

Dalvik Wiper (flash that first in CWM then follow up with kernels)

There are data & cache partition wipes, I got em somewhere I need to dig em up.

Edit: Here is those wipes I was talking about.. These seem to clean things up better for some reason..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1225630

The wipe all zips don't work with 4.0.4 roms. If you use them they hang up during the flash.

____________________
Just Flash It !!!

 

[Skunkape60]

Yeah because booting into recovery and selecting "Wipe Data/ Factory Reset" followed by "Wipe Dalvik", and "Wipe Cache" 3 times each is not properly wiping my phone....

That's not all. Try formatting your system and boot as well. What you're doing is only clearing the data and cache. You're not removing the system files. But you're right. What you're doing should cause you to have to sign onto your google account.

Wiping data (factory reset) only removes the files you downloaded. It does nothing to the gapps which are system files.

What are you using to clear everything? Twrp, cwm touch or regular cwm recovery?

Edit: I see you do have cwm recovery. After doing what you normally do (wipe data, cache and dalvik), go into advanced and reboot recovery. When you're back in recovery, go into the mounts and storage menu and in this order choose format system, format cache, format data and format boot. Then flash your rom and gaps if needed.

You are just doing the bare minimum by wiping data cache and dalvik.
____________________
Just Flash It !!!

 

[thebullfrog]

As much as you may be right that CWM is for whatever reason failing to properly wipe, you seem to have missed the post where I said I got it working. Again, it never asked for me to sign in, but the Gapps flashed correctly so I was able to do it through Play, and it's been smooth sailing ever since. For whatever it's worth it was regular CWM. I did just flash CWM touch for shizzles and giggles, so we'll see if it makes any difference next time I flash ROMs.

One of these days I probably should do a full format of the entire thing and start from scratch, but I'm lazy lol.