[Nexus 10 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] planet_x69:
I should ask for a sticky for this but these instruction will work EVERY TIME if you are running either custom recovery or Root.

You will need the latest adb/fastboot from google, you can either install the SDK or download any of the many smaller adb/fastboot and libs for your OS

You will need STOCK 4.4/4.3/4.2 recovery depending on what version of android you are currently on. Download the factory image from here. Open the zip within the package and pull out recovery.img and rename it stockrecovery.img

Copy your custom recovery to the adb folder name it twrp.zip or short name for whatever you are using I am using twrp.

You will need the correct OTA you are seeking to apply - rename it to something short simple and obvious - for this example I will use otaupdate.zip

If you wish to root get the latest patch (I believe its up to 1.75 now) and copy it to the adb/fastboot folder.

BACKUP YOUR DEVICE FIRST AND COPY IT TO YOUR PC

If you are already Rooted:

If you are using SuperSU - go to the application options and completely unroot and reboot if needed

BACKUP YOUR DEVICE FIRST AND COPY IT TO YOUR PC

If not rooted start here:

I am assuming most of you are Windows users. Open your file explorer and open the ADB folder.

On the left hand folder where ADB is located, press shift and right click the ADB folder and select "Open command window from here". This will open a command prompt window for you to run all your adb/fastboot commands from. This is the same folder where you copied your recoveries and updates to.

BACKUP YOUR DEVICE FIRST AND COPY IT TO YOUR PC

Copy your custom recovery and stock recovery to your adb folder

Copy and rename the OTA to the adb folder

Copy your root.zip patch to the /sdcard downloads folder (if you wish root)

>adb reboot bootloader - if you are already stuck in bootloop you can attempt >fastboot reboot-bootloader to run these steps

>fastboot flash recovery stockrecovery.img

>fastboot reboot-bootloader

Go into recovery and wait till dead droid appears

Press power and Volume Up at same time to go into the stock recovery menu

Using the volume buttons move and down the blue list of options and select: Apply update from ADB

You will now have orange text at the bottom of the screen - follow the instructions to side load by typing >adb sideload otaupdate.zip in your command prompt window

Wait and watch the progress, at this point you should see the ota processing steps of which there a few and will vary depending on the package. When its complete there will be a "install complete" or similar message

Reboot and let the update complete the system optimizations and go in validate your device is working and the version is what you wanted

>adb reboot bootloader

>fastboot flash twrp.zip

>fastboot reboot-recovery

Using your newly installed custom recovery you can now apply zips/root etc

Reboot as needed and update root if using older .zip to current binaries and enjoy your updated device.

And yes you only need to backup once prior to starting but many people skip that step -DON'T BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.

Hopefully I've not missed a bit.

You can also use these same instructions if you're stuck in boot loop or applied a patch without first replacing stock or unrooting - just boot to bootloader using fastboot and replace recovery and apply the patches. This will usually work just fine and prevent much heart ache on your part.