[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
Wow, an answer, and that quick too! Yeah, I know in my heart that if I do a "dirty" (That means flash over existing ROM, yes?) update, I will have apps not responding and closing all over the place, if it runs at all. So that means start from scratch, just delete the slot, recreate it w/2Gb space, wipe everything (Although does that really matter if one deletes the ROM slot and then recreates it. Wouldn't that pretty much "wipe everything"?), and use SS to Flash the ROM and gapps. Then, do the start wizard, add accounts, and let Google restore all it knows about. Some apps like Safe Strap and a few others did not come from Google, so those will not be repopulated by the Google reinstall script. It really sucks when the Google re-population script stops for whatever reason, there is no way to restart it I know of other than factory wipe.

Hey, the gapps you recommend is the trimmed down version. You can see it is less than ½ the size of the pa_gapps zip. That means I have a LOT of basic Google stuff to install manually, or get lucky and have the Google script update and install missing apps.

I bought Titanium Backup and have everything backed up that way. I can either create "update zip" with it and flash it. Supposedly it will reinstall everything during reboot, takes a while. The URL in update.zip shows the instructions for it. Not sure if it works well and is recommended. Restoring apps w/Titanium should not include data as the data structure may not be similar and cause app crashes. But it is very good for certain things that are a major PITA to setup like ES File Explorer with all LAN logins, other apps that require passwords and logins, and setup. Last time I went from 10.2 to 10.2, I had to do everything over again. update.zip should put back all user apps and data, but no system apps or data. That should restore everything, Google re-populater or not, and then Google can update what needs to be updated.

I did click "Thanks" for you. I asked for people w/experience to please help and you did reply immediately with what you know works. I can do it this way but will have to use SS to boot back to stock for daily use until I get enough of CM11 setup to where I can use it 24/7. I did use SS to make backups of each slot, one BU for each, stock and CM10.2. I included the "webtop", whatever that is, but not the caches. I think someone recommended a complete "nandroid backup" prior to doing this. I don't quite know what this means other than to use SS to backup EVERYTHING, all checkboxes, to have something I can use to reliably restore the phone in the event the updates hoses it. Is that necessary?

Thank you so much for the Christmas Advice. I am not sure if I will do this tonight or not. I would rather not spend the entire Christmas night punching tiny screen buttons on the phone to restore everything and that is what will happen. But maybe I can try it, then boot back to stock for a usable device. Wish I had the card storage to save both installed ROMS and try CM11 as a third choice. But I am down to close to 2Gb on all storage devices and it looks like installing a third ROM might be pushing it beyond the limits of card storage.

Thank you zero66. Anyone and everyone else w/experience is welcome to chime in to help with this very specific question. It might be the pot of gold over the rainbow to people who have an XT912 as finding device specific detailed instructions can be very difficult. Merry Christmas everyone!

---------- Post added at 11:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 PM ----------

LumberjackZac,

Wow! Awesome reply and so fast. I love the inline Q&A replies. True, all this stuff has been answered before, but it is all widespread, scattered throughout many different posts, some of which contain over 100 pages. That is a HUGE amount of researching and trust me, I have tried this but just could not consolidate or even find everything I need into one place, even on an open text file on desktop. I also could not find

everything

I need, regardless of how much I search. The search terms you have provided should be very helpful.

Yes, I ask a LOT of questions, some of which are preferences. Please excuse me, I tend to be loquacious and have little control over it. It does irritate some people, and I try to make efforts to diminish it.

You say I can "dirty flash" w/out wiping everything but dalvik and cache. But do recommend a complete ROM slot removal and reinstall. This effectively wipes everything. I presume you mean do this for major updates, i.e.: 10.x-11.x? It would not hurt to try and just update the cmupdater zip, cm-11-20131225-NIGHTLY-spyder.zip and see if the gapps update themselves? If not, back to Safe Strap and install latest gapps.

...it sounds like this could work, but expect a lot of app crashes, fail to respond, etc., and may have to just delete the slot and go fresh anyway if it does not work out. Is that about right?

Awww man! HDMI, Wifi AP might not work? HDMI I do not have the HDMI to mini USB cable but would like to experiment with it sometime. It would be cool to watch some of the great internet video I get on 4G on a big, hi def screen. Ooooooooh, the WiFi AP is really important. I use that to run my tablet almost all the time. I was so surprised to find it in this ROM, previously I had to use Wireless Tether for Root Users, found it did not work on 4.3, then found it built in and works perfectly! That would be an abort if it does not work anymore.

Please correct me if I am wrong. Thank you for the timely response and excellent advice. Merry Christmas.