[Moto G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] GTRONICK:
XT1040 KitKat 4.4.4 Brazil Stock VS Latinoamerica Stock VS Carbon ROM

Hi people!, First of all, thanks for your excellent work and support, today, I will describe my experience with the Moto G 4G XT1040, using Carbon ROM, Kitkat 4.4.4 Stock from Brazil, and the Kitkat 4.4.4 Stock Latinoamerica.

Before begin:

I purchase this device on Mercadolibre Colombia, it comes with Android 5.1 Lollipop installed. All seems to work perfect.

Why I decided to downgrade to KitKat?:

The battery life on Lollipop 5.1 is poor

Sometimes, the RAM consumption is higher than Kitkat

The device overheats when playing, or viewing videos on Youtube APP

The excessive white background on menus, and settings, is annoying to my eyes

I want to learn how to flash, and install custom and stock ROMs in my device

What did I first?

The first thing I do, is a lot of reading. For an inexpert person like me, many of the literature found is so confusing, some people talk about using a custom recovery, others about using commands, other about download a Script, etc etc. So, I decided to start using a Custom Recovery to be able to install custom ROMs.

Ok, that is nice, but before of that, you need to unlock your Bootloader! Well, this is pretty easy using the guidelines from the Motorola Web site, just search on google "Unlock motorola moto g bootloader" and voila! Enter the Motorola web site, and follow the instructions. I will not enter in details here, you can browse this forum to see how to unlock your bootloader.

Important! I'm using Kubuntu 14.04 LTS x64, so I did all the process on Linux. I downloaded Fastboot, adb tools, etc.

After many search, I found the TWRP custom recovery, and installed it on my device. I found the 2.8.7 version, with encryption enabled.

Now, I read about Carbon ROM and found it very interesting, so, I downloaded the only version for peregrine model (XT1040) available. This ROM is Nightly, so it could have bugs. Well, after download, I installed it using TWRP. The ROM is incredible, fast,

highly customizable. So which is the problem?? Well on this ROM, applications like Skype, Messenger and Whatsapp don't work as expected. The Call feature in this apps, does not work with the built-in microphone, but it works with a Bluethooth Handsfree. After connect the Bluethooth handsfree, you can switch to the speaker, and now it works, but, if you don't have a handsfree, bad luck buddy. (NOTE: Tested only on my XT1040 Moto G 4G, it could work on other devices).

So, after discover this issue, I decided to go back to my Lollipop ROM, I made a backup of my Lollipop system with TWRP, so is time to test the Backup feature of this custom recovery. Find the TWRP folder on my device only was possible being into recovery mode, and browsing the device from my laptop using USB cable, if you use the device on the home screen (fully booted, normal mode, whatever you call it) , and connect it to the PC, you can't see that folder. Ok, I reboot in recovery mode using adb reboot recovery command, then go to wipe, advanced, wipe: cache, Davlink cache and System, then, go back to Backup option, locate the folder and touch Restore. The process starts but it ends with a "Failed" message. At this point I think: I should not reboot, it could cause my device to brick, better option is to install Carbon ROM again and then, install the Stock ROM kitkat 4.4.4. Ok, go ahead!

I searched a lot for the original factory ROM, and found the Brazilian version. It is a .zip file, which, to my surprise, is flasheable, so I can use TWRP to install it, thing that I did transferring the .zip file to my device on the external SD using my USB cable (device in recovery mode), and all works perfect!!. After that, I reinstalled all my apps, configurations, etc. Then, rooted the device, and restored the Boot logo to replace the Warning message which appear after unlock the bootloader with the original Motorola Boot logo. All fine, all perfect, no issues with messenger or another app, Cel signal is ok, wifi ok, Bluetooth ok, Headset ok, USB transfer and debug ok. All ok, fast and clean with this ROM. I used it some time, but something in my head says to my self I must install the Latinoamerican Version because the Lollipop I had, was Latinoamerican, so I finally will have a "fully original" device.

Well, I tried the same procedure: download the .zip ROM, and use TWRP, but, oh! surprise!, this kind of ROM's are not custom recovery compatible, you must flash it using commands with fastboot!. So, I search again and found the commands. Connect my device, reboot in bootloader mode, and start using commands (after decompressing the .zip file). The first tree commands failed, the rest, OK. I rebooted, and now, I'm so happy to see my device booting and when it reached the welcome screen oohh, my soul turn back to my body (I was very very nervous). I configure it, but I notice something, the cellular signal is gone, but I wait some seconds, (like 8), and the signal and data plan indicator appear. I keep configuring my account, permissions, app updates, etc etc. Now finally, I have my device "completely restored" (I keep thinking about the failed commands). I use my phone for three days with this ROM, but problems start appearing!, some apps crashing even doing a Wipe cache operation, cellular signal is gone when connected to Wifi, but after some seconds is back, sometimes the UI lags, some special applications like tap tap app, to unlock the device using the proximity sensor are killed when the device is loked (sometimes only). So, it is frustrating. At the time I was writing this "Article", I was restoring my device to the Brazilian ROM, I now is working fine as before.

If you (the reader of this) want to know what I did step by step, let me know and I will do my best to explain you how I made all this process.

Please, excuse my redaction, English is not my native language, I speak Spanish. Thanks for reading, and I'm waiting for your comments.

Regards!