BouncingSoul

Ok first off. I know there are forums dedicated to this, I just am too stupid to understand them. Everytime I read a thread I have to google half the words in the post to figure out what they are talking about, i.e SBF, locked bootloader, Flash ROM and so on. So I'm hoping someone can just post an easy response to this question here, and then this thread can be locked and we can all go on with our lives.

That being said ... I followed a guide to clean up the bloatware on my Droid X. It worked wonderfully. Except now I can't get phone updates. I did a lot of research and I THINK I'll need to restore my phone to start getting updates. I have all the tools I need to do this but the terminology is getting to me and I can't get a straight answer as to what to expect. If I (hope I'm saying this right) flash the rom to a previous stock version... That is like a reformat of a hdd right? I'll lose everything. Or is it like a reinstall of the OS and all my apps, music and contacts will be there? Like I said, dumb question, but reading those forums confuses me to no end. I just need to know before I start since I'll have to remove my Battle.net authenticator from my WoW account and hopefully find a way to backup my Angry Birds progress. That's really all I need saved!

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Bman

I myself have issues with all the details on this kind of stuff, and the guys over at XDA don't tend to help, or they think they are helping but aren't.

Yes the reason you aren't getting your updates now is because your current ROM you have does not support OTA (over the air). Which most of them don't. You will have to flash the stock version back on your phone to get updates, or just flash a newer customized ROM.

The issue, is you don't need to WIPE to do a flash. When you do a WIPE that is like a reformat, flashing is more like running the Windows Disc. You can install the ROM with only flashing and it might be fine, sometimes if it's a different ROM there can be issues, sometimes it's ok. So most ROM cooks tell you to WIPE everything, which is done in Recovery (like the BOOT menu). The one part you asked about, locked bootloader is the complicated part. It allows you to ROOT, which allows you do Flash and all the other stuff. But I don't understand locked and unlocked bootloader stuff, if you have already Flashed and ROOTed, you should be fine now.

That is basics. Where I start to get confused is all the different devices, and versions on those devices, if your are GSM, or CDMA, certain ROMS don't work for you, certain phones needs these bootloaders, etc etc. That is where I get confused.

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Xie

root = to give you admin access (just like Windows / or "root" on *nix)

Locked bootloader = means you cannot modify it (aka you can't flash a custom ROM) ... the bootloader is kinda like your BIOS on your computer [I believe] .. it chooses what gets booted on the start of your phone.

Flashing most ROMs will "format" your phones data/OS area (kinda like your Windows partition) .. you will need to backup anything you want to keep/backup (ie. apps that you want certain versions of and app data). You can do this several ways. I think one of the easiest ways is to use an app called Titanium Backup (you can have it backup all your apps and system and app data).

Also most ROMs you find around are newer / faster / included more features / ect. then anything your going to get from an OTA (over the air) update from your provider [if your provider ever gets around to even providing you with one - many phones wait forever].

I'm no expert ... I have flashed a custom ROM and modem [the modem is what controls your connection to your provider .. aka signal strength / up and download speed / ect.] on my Captivate though. I'd have to do some research before I could give you more details on what you need to do if you really wanted to take your phone back to stock [the bloatware would come back] though.

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Bman

The flashing will format your data is wrong.

If you have the Oxygen ROM installed as well as many others, and you flash the newer version onto it, nothing is lost. Most people follow certain steps to flash, which include going into the recovery and hitting Wipe, which is not needed. If you run into problems later then you should wipe and try again.

Now going from one ROM (oxygen) to another (cryogen) then you should include that Wipe, because there will probably be problems. But doing a Flash, simply does not format (wipe) your data. That is just a main step people include in tutorials. I also could be wrong and some ROMs are different.

Either way, you should always back up

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BouncingSoul

In case anyone is curious as to how this all went...

I followed these instructions.

maderstcok - OTA 2.3.340 update.zip - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

As long as you do it as it says, I can't imagine you'll brick your phone. It's remarkably easy to do and didn't take long at all. To be safe I unlinked my authenticator from my battle.net account and uninstalled the app but I think that wasn't necessary. Everything else came back and worked just like before... Well Titanium Backup and Bootstrap don't, but that's because the version I put on my phone isn't pre-rooted. So once (if!) I root it again those will work too.

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