[Sony Xperia X Compact ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, &] harryharryharry:
[MENTION=2728349]lba810701[/MENTION] :good: Thanks for the feedback!

[MENTION=5647867]Kianush[/MENTION] For me the device has been running solid for a while now. Of course if your workflow differs from mine or other users of the rom you could run into issues previously undetected. I can vouch for Magisk working as I have it installed myself, but I don't know about lucky patcher & rom toolbox. The dsp issue was addressed by relabeling certain files on the dsp partition around 17dec2018 so if your rom is from before that date I would upgrade first (if you're switching roms anyway, it is a small extra step). I don't know if batterycare apps function in combination with this rom, but I generally dislike them (same goes for antivirus apps). If battery life is not okay, that means it should be addressed at android source code level (or binary blobs that Sony provides) for the device (btw, batterylife could be one issue you run into, apart from being a new android version, there also has been a kernel upgrade to 4.9, which should bring with it certain improvements, but can also introduce regressions - this goes for any functionality but certainly for batterylife).

Updating oem SW binaries is no problem at all. If you experience any issues, just flash back the older version with fastboot. Rom updates can be a little more tricky. As you can see with the last update there were some issues that could not be solved with a simple rom flash, however normally: yes, you should be able to dirty flash the rom and keep your apps/settings. Also for the rom goes that you should be able flash back an older version that worked. As for flashing the dsp partition: Flashtool should be even easier than Emma as you should be able to select only the dsp partition.

Backup-wise, I never found an app that worked reliably for me. The most important part of backups is that they work when you absolutely need to restore them (when there's no plan B so to speak). I've been burned too many times by apps force closing after restoring, or even devices hanging on reboot. Right now my backup strategy is as follows:

- export any settings for important apps that (you) do not (want to) backup to the cloud (for example: afwall, k9, nzb360, whatsapp, wireguard)

- reboot to TWRP and make a nandroid backup (I select everything from 'boot' up to 'dsp'; and enable compression under 'options')

- copy the /sdcard contents (which now contains the nandroid backup under the TWRP directory) to your pc.

If you need to restore, when restoring to a new version of the same rom a nandroid restore will suffice (don't forget to also copy back the /sdcard contents

before

booting - TWRP will not backup/restore those, and once you have booted apps like whatsapp will be immediately fetching new messages (and writing them to a new database if you haven't copied back the old one)).

If you switch to another rom you can attempt to do a restore of the data partition, but I wouldn't take that gamble. Just install the rom, install the apps you want (maybe make a list of the apps you had installed) and restore any per-app exported settings you saved. (I know: it's cumbersome, but it has never left me hanging. )