[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
This is

good advice

from moset. Everybody should read this and listen up! :good:

Note: The date on the update that moset is talking about it one month old. He may have meant 02/02. I asked about it, waiting for an answer.

Yeah, I talk a lot. So if you don't have the time, skip this and do what moset suggested. Read the change log prior to updating. You can stop right here and move on if you want...

I finally have a gorgeous, stable install of CM11 that I can run continuously. CM11 is new. Kit Kat is new. People were installing it the first month that it came out, many people actually expected "stability" from this build in the first few weeks! Not gonna happen and even I know that. Too new, too many *awesome* upgrades, file system, memory management, and a slew of other very welcome updates and enhancements to pass up. But CM devs have limited resources, they are not the same as Motorola where they can extensively test and bug check each build for each device until they can call it stable and offer it on new devices or via OTA update. The CM devs are regular "Joes" who have lives and do this "because they can" and do it for free. They believe in open source and all it stands for. It is a mutually beneficial system. We get fantastic upgrades for free that are NOT supported by adware or encourage users to pay for GPS services like Verizon. They get an internship and valuable experience to put in their resume to go on to better jobs or even form their own company. They never put "crap" into these roms. Plus, we all love them. :victory:

"VZ Navigator", what a joke! You get Google Maps, their version of it, and pay up to $4 for each use? Huh? Google Maps is the best in the world, anytime you see a TV show with a satellite or street view of a map, it is clearly branded "Google" in the corner somewhere. And Verizon wants us to "pay" for an inferior product instead? Get it OFF my phone! Apple did the same crap but worse, you were not even "allowed" to use Google Maps on an iPhone, you HAD to stick to Apple Maps which sucked so bad that even Apple had to tuck in their tails and run. I am getting off track, sorry.

There are SO MANY updates for CM11 that

you should not update immediately to any nightly release

. Wait a few days, read the board, see if anyone complains or devs announce that there was a bad patch in such and such release and be sure to skip ahead of it to update. Also Remember: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

In your phone, Settings, About Phone, CyanogenMod Updates, is your list of updates available. For update types, you need to select New Versions (inc. Nightlies) to get CM11. Since NONE of these updates are marked "Stable", you download and flash at your own risk. But we all want to update. So be smart about it. In your Updates section, you get two parts to each update. A description and a download/install part. Touch the name of the update and you get the Change Log. Read this. See if it addresses any issues you might be having. I was constantly having to wipe the Dalvik Cache to fix some sort of signal or lock condition. One Change Log mentioned it fixed a dalvik leak. That is important to my issue. It is like a memory leak where it fills and fills your memory until you crash and run out. A dalvik leak is something similar, it is your virtual machine, the OS live, in action. So a leak there could mean parts of the system are getting lost, parts that should update might but without flushing the stuff it replaces. No matter what it is, it's bad so I dont't want it.

Updating every single day is semi-retarded. Who wants to be a slave to their phone? Read the change log and if addresses any issues you are having, radio for signal loss or lock, dalvik like me, WiFi if you have such problems, camera, etc., then grab it. But wait a day if you can. Update when something significant changes and let some days go by to see if there are any complaints. Easier to avoid a bad update than to restore a backup then update, or worse, have to start from scratch.

This is only my advice people. Nobody has to listen to me or do anything I say. Many other people know more than I do and I am grateful for the heads up. But I recently bit the bullet and went completely clean from scratch. And that was the ticket that made mine stable again. No patches in the system from long ago, no JBX kernel to make troubleshooting difficult. I did install some good Xposed modules and use them. I posted my xposed modules for people to see and some sharp cookies found 2 modules that were either redundant or not even for this model phone. I took them out plus the Immerse Me module because I DO want to see the notification bar at all times. All good, past the test of several days, no reboots, no boot to recovery or stock rom, no wiping or anything. So at this point, I make a Safe Strap backup to preserve it. I hate having to install accounts all over again, setup everything, install modules, and all that so I want a known clean and good backup. I will keep one early backup of my clean system and one or more later backups. Always keep ONE early, clean install and tested backup! You can always update over a backup like that. Later backups might already contain a bad update and there is no way to remove them. So keep one, good, early clean backup forever.

In the beginning of CM11's development, updates could contain radical changes to the system and it's components. Updating over them could lead to a really unstable system. So nobody was at ease doing "a dirty update", meaning OTA for good reason. I hope/think/believe that we are past that now. Updating OTA should no longer be "a dirty experience". Just use your OTA updates with confidence, read the change log to see if this is a good thing, and go for it. Use your known good backups to restore to a stable state in the event that an update goes bad.

Thanks given to moset for this important and valuable post. 'night everyone!

---------- Post added at 10:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 PM ----------

Hey Moset, 01/02 is one month old. Are you sure you don't mean 02/02?