[Galaxy S 4 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] venia_forvess:
I'm a Newb sure, but fairly sure this isn't my fault....

Hello, I have spent the past 2 days working on this flash you've stated as well and I can't understand for the life of me what I am doing wrong. You mentioned that TWRP may not have supported the mini but it seems that it does - odin just isn't installing it right? I am hoping people on here have already hashed this out on both ODIN and TWRP for this device and after spending 24 hours figuring this out i'm wondering if it's just some stupid thing i'm doing wrong. I've put the full stuff below which you may largely be able to ignore but what i need to figure out is how to install TWRP 3.0 or higher on my device, and how to keep ODIN from crashing. Can you help?

1. where I started and my goal:

My homestay mother in New Zealand who works for the tech firm Datacom provided me with a Galaxy S4 mini (GT-I9195 spark edition) that she had left over because she got a new phone for her work. I had a galaxy note 2 running default controls due to its setup on KNOXED up verizon, so i thought this was a good opportunity to switch to cyanogen since i've used the service before (someone else went through all this trouble for me and I am eternally grateful). So I am trying to install Cyanogen mod 13 with GAPPS package nano on to it.​

2. The file repretoires and guides I used:

TWRP 2.8.1 (originally) and it's accompanied manager

Trying to upgrade to TWRP 3.0.2.0 or 3.1.0

GAPPS arm 6.0 mini/nano/pico (I've tried all three)

Odin 3.12.3 with requisite drivers (shows blue on status bar)

Default Bootloader for Android devices

CMD ADB systems with requisite drivers

CyanogenMod 13 (cm-13.0-20160820-ZNH5YAO0J7) (currently installed and working san-GAPPs)

3. What I've done Start to current:

starting with the phone locked, unrooted, and factory resets not working (company KNOX settings)

Installed Kingroot, superSU, RootChecker, TWRP manager and official ap, P-uninstall = Obtained Root

Attained root on the phone, deleted all KNOX and KGNT protection. = obtained unlocked sim/recovery loader

Installed TWRP 2.8.6 (any more recent installs failed as I will explain below in problems) Attempted to flash it = read success

Failed to boot into TWRP recovery - provided default recovery instead.

downloaded and installed ODIN. Used default boot loader and attempted to install TWRP directly through ODIN = Works

placed CM13 zip file and GAPPS 6.0 - ARMS Nano on SD card.

Created recovery on SD card

Wiped cash, devalk cache, and internal storage = clean partition

Installed BOTH CM13 and GAPPs 6.0 as zip files using TWRP 2.8.6 = worked

rebooted system into new OS

OS got stuck in boot cycle due to GAPPs package. after some googling i found out that Gapps requires TWRP 3.02 or higher (but i couldn't get those to download onto my phone at all. [here enlies the ROOT of my problem - you're allowed to kill me now]

Returned to TWRP and installed JUST CM13 on the device = works great! just no GAPPs! and no ability to download apps

Used Odin, TWRP manager, the official TWRP app, and CMD ADB sideloader to attempt to install all 3.0 and higher TWRP files = all of them failed

now I cannot access a bootloader at all, but can access my OS just fine. It refuses to accept any TWRP bootloaders but without them i cannot install GAPPS

4. Where I am Currently & Problems I'm running in to:

Right now CM13 is on and stable for my device. My Recovery loader is refusing to come up AT ALL. Attempting to install both .img and .tar files of TWRP read as succeeding in the apps but don't come up.

ODIN can't load anything on the device. Either it keeps freezing and crashing any time I touch it or when it does go through the device still can't bring up TWRP. Even when flashing 2.8.6 which originally worked as a recovery file it fails as well. I can't get back to TWRP working at all.

ADB sideloading just results in <waiting for device>. I am clearly using "fastboot" instead of ADB during the point in which i am flashing the recovery file on to it.

5. What I need Help with:

I need to know why TWRP is freezing any time i attempt to install it regardless of version and how to get it properly installed

if someone could point me to a reason odin freezes regardless of what options I tick on or off, file I upload, or whatever i'd love to know

I see 2 ways out of my predicament and i'm not sure which one I should spend more time on: 1) get TWRP 2.8.6 to work again and then find an older GAPP partition to load on to it. or 2) Get TWRP 3.0 or greater to work on it, and then use current GAPP packages. which would be best?