[Help Please] Best Way to Fully Restore/upgrade from rooted .886

[V3XED]

Hello DroidForum! (just realized this should be in tech support, sorry!!)

I have been lurking here for a couple days now trying to solve my current predicament (which I will detail shortly) but am daunted by all the technicalities and requirements of updating and wiping from version abc to xyz. So I was hoping for some definitive answers from people whom are more knowledgable then myself.

Problem:
I bought the Bionic on launch day, rooted and sloppily debloated and have not been able to update from version .886
Now hpwithin the last few months however I no longer get any 4g At All! That combined with the impending official ICS release has me wanting to get back on track.

Question:
What is my best safest option? I have failed at re-gloating my phone once, and it seems that while FXC will let you rollback to .886, you must start from version .901 or later if I understood it correctly.
I am open to flashing a custom Rom and already have safestrap installed and my phone backed up.

Sorry for the wall of text and thanks in advance!!
~V3XED

 

[Vepaot]

Download Pete's Motorola Root Tools.

Click on 'Unroot My Phone'.

If that is the only modifications you've done to your phone, you should be able to get updates after the program is finished unrooting your device. You'll need a different program to re-root it whenever you update though.

(Note: This is assuming you have the Motorola drivers already installed on your PC. Also make sure USB Debugging is enabled.)

 

[V3XED]

Thank you for the quick response Vepaot, but unfortunately I think my main problem is that I removed bloatware quite some time ago and don't really know what or how I need to restore it.

 

[Vepaot]

My next suggestion would be to try p3droid's Bionic Path Saver 1-Click Method, but finding a working link to the original may be kind of a pain in the butt.

 

[aaf709]

There's a list of bloatware at http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-bionic-hacks/212825-bloatware-safe-remove-905-a.html that may help.

 

[V3XED]

Thanks again guys,

The bionic pathsaver seems safer than FXC (less places for me to f*ck stuff up) so that I like! It still is a bit unclear as to weather or not it will definatly work going FROM .886

It seems most of these tools assume your phone is at least .901
Also If I understood you correctly your implying I should maybe try to find the original version/release of the tool to ensure compatibility? Could you clarify?

Also thanks for the list of bloatware, I am sure I did not remove more than 5 or 6 applications when I de-bloated. Is there a simplified list existing for .886? (im guessing probably not). And also, assuming I can identify the missing applications, how would I go about getting the .apk files back?

Thanks for the continued support!
(also to Mods, you can move this to tech support, sorry)

 

[Vepaot]

Yes, I would say look for the one with the original image files. I used it a long time ago to "bone stock" my phone when I was off the update path with .902 I think? It put my phone back on the very first version of Gingerbread that it was on when I opened it out of the box, which would be .886 I'm pretty sure?

Sorry I can't be of more help than that. Best of luck my friend.

EDIT: Actually have you tried doing a simple factory reset to see if that would restore the bloatware? Make sure you back everything up to your computer or somewhere safe before you do anything like that.

 

[V3XED]

You know, as obvious as it seems I have not. I assumed factory reset is a hardware wipe, and therefore would not be retreiving or restoring any new data (ex. the apps i stupidly deleted) but I will give this a try. It does not wipe external SD card I assume?

Also to anybody that knows if the current bionic pathsaver will work on a .886 phone or where to find the earlier version please let me know!!

 

[Vepaot]

Yes your SD card should be just fine. But I would back it up also anyway. You can never have too many back ups!

 

[V3XED]

Ok, in the process of backing everything up, I found out I already had a backup of all of the bloatware I removed!!! (cant believe I forgot x_x)

Anyways, I went through re-installing all of the apps (blockbuster, city ID, kindle, etc etc) The only one which Failed to install was "IM" the instant messaging application with a red icon.

The .apk just fails to install. I tried updating anyways, downloaded the update, phone rebooted, and update failed

Does anybody know why that .apk would fail to install? I can find it when i search my apps, so i do believe it is the missing link!

 

[eye_dea]

You can just flash the 905 fxz with RSDlite 5.7. Then you will be on the latest official OTA. Using pathsaver and other older files will can cause issues...
PM me your gtalk name if you need help.