Develop Bugs

[Q] Firmware Update won't work on rooted phone

Hello,
My HTC Desire got an update today.... However, when I try to apply it, it will progress almost halfway until it shows me the little droid guy with an exclamation mark.
I am on stock Froyo currently, however I am rooted using Unrevoked3. I was told I could still update and it would even retain root in the future. However, it does not seem to be the case.
So what would my options here be?
I do wish to retain root, and I do wish to update my phone. Mainly, because I hope it will fix the WiFi issue (WiFi goes into sleep mode in lock screen, regardless of the settings, thus I can't use Skype properly.)
Any advice and/or help would really be appreciated.

You cannot apply an OTA to a rooted phone, FFS how many more times does it have to be said!?!?!?!
Look for an updated version of your custom ROM (if you're using one) or go back to stock, get the update and re-root

Well; How would i go back to stock?
Or is there a custom rom that is nothing but a rooted stock rom?

Flash the stock Rom with 2.29 update wich can be found in the dev. forum..
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Could you provide a link? I couldnt find it Sorry, im just new and lost

Insayne84 said:
Could you provide a link? I couldnt find it Sorry, im just new and lost
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
shouldn't be to hard to find.. but still..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=773997

EddyOS said:
You cannot apply an OTA to a rooted phone, FFS how many more times does it have to be said!?!?!?!
Look for an updated version of your custom ROM (if you're using one) or go back to stock, get the update and re-root
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IVS IVRIS said:
shouldn't be to hard to find.. but still..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=773997
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
since when did we become so intolerant to new members guys?? keep in mind there was a time when none of us knew that you couldnt flash ota's with a custom recovery. someone had to tell us all

Flash the update again it should work. But I'd use an RUU and get back to stock.

Updated Rooted Device - Constant Reboot

Hi,
I need quick help. I unthinkably installed accepted to install a OTA update (2.29.405.5) on my Stock HTC ROM, forgetting that I had rooted my phone and the update was unsuccessful telling me that 'E:failed to verify whole- file signature'. Could someone tell me what to do next.
Thank you in advance.

Deeco7 said:
Hi,
I need quick help. I unthinkably installed accepted to install a OTA update (2.29.405.5) on my Stock HTC ROM, forgetting that I had rooted my phone and the update was unsuccessful telling me that 'E:failed to verify whole- file signature'. Could someone tell me what to do next.
Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can boot into recovery, then wipe all data & restore the latest nandroid backup you had.
If you can't then install an Official HTC RUU ROM (but after that you need to root it again).

The OTA will have replaced the recovery so that can't be done. Flash the 2.29.405.5 RUU, root again and then restore the last nandroid you did

nagypapi said:
If you can boot into recovery, then wipe all data & restore the latest nandroid backup you had.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brilliant! +1.
One more thing: Can you direct me to a guide to updating rooted device?

Deeco7 said:
Brilliant! +1.
One more thing: Can you direct me to a guide to updating rooted device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A rooted device?
1. You update it manually from a .zip file, but then you have to ROOT it again.
I do not reccomend this one, because it can cause bootloops, or simply just won't work (depends on many factors).
2. Flash a custom ROM (even pre-rooted custom stock ROMs are on the site). A full list of ROMs can be found here.

As you've just found out, you can't update a rooted stock ROM so you answered your own question

Can I un-root then update OTA and then re-root, or will that cause problems too?

You can't unroot without flashing an RUU so you might as well flash the 2.29.405.5 RUU and then root that

Wow, what a headache. Is there anything else besides 'automatic download to sd card of apps' that has changed in this update that is worth flashing to?
If I decide to go ahead. Will I be able to use my nandroid backup?

Deeco7 said:
Wow, what a headache. Is there anything else besides 'automatic download to sd card of apps' that has changed in this update that is worth flashing to?
If I decide to go ahead. Will I be able to use my nandroid backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I've found (no changelog tough):
The first positive HTC Desire firmware change is that apps are now installed directly to the SD card for downloading, and I no longer go through the hassle of downloading and then move.
A couple of minor negative:
- The HTC Desire live wallpaper you can get “stuck”. By this I mean that if you use the stock HTC wallpaper live and go to the big screen to the left, a dark blue, to launch an app is a widget, then do not go back directly to the main page, the wall paper will continue to live on the left side of the Most of the screens (ie, that home screen is a darker blue). It looks cool when it happens.
- This HTC Desire update configures the application to sync kits. Just disable it again, then everything is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And you can use your nandroid backup (when you restore - it will use the previous version not this new one).

nagypapi said:
(when you restore - it will use the previous version not this new one).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I didn't understand this clearly, could you clarify.

I mean if you restore that it will overwrite the RUU version you want to flash.

Oh okay, I think I will stay with '2.29.405.2' for now, not worth updating or the hassle. Thanks both for the help.

Just wanted to know if there is an alternative way to back up apps and data when I choose to upgrade to latest firmware, and not have to worry about compatiblity or fw version. Thanks.

[Q] Removing CM7 (and other ROMs)

Hey every. Sorry if this question is already answered and it is a repost. How can i uninstall Cyanogenmod 7 RC2 from my Incredible, but still keep it rooted? Would the same way work for other ROMs as well, or does each ROM have a different way to remove them? Thank you in advance for your help.

If you made a backup then you can easily restore.
If you didn't, then you can flash the stock incredible ROM.
You will continue to stay rooted unless you take additional steps to unroot your phone.
Also I think you may have a misconception of how the ROM's work. These aren't installed on top of your phone, they remove the old one and replace it with whatever ROM you flash. Of course as long as you made a backup before you flashed then how your phone was before the flash will be right there if you ever choose to restore.

I did backup before I installed the Cyanogenmod 7. How do i 'recover'? Also, if i were to flash, would this take me back to being unrooted?

The way I understood it you can use ROM manager to load the Nandroid you created before flashing CM7, bringing back all your settings/text/calls etc you had before flashing your new rom. I've yet to attempt to go back to stock so someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You'll keep root unless to take the steps to go from s-off to s-on, and flash the stock RUU. Restoring a nandroid will restore the backup to the exact point the backup was made, so make regular backups!

Searched and cannot find themost current stock incredible ROM, any help?

J2theMatt said:
Searched and cannot find themost current stock incredible ROM, any help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=969973

fp99 said:
try this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=969973
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't flashed it yet, but this is the first of many that link actually was live. Thank you.

Ok. So i havent done anything because I am extremely busy, but now i have some time to get this done. As it is, I'm going to have to unroot my phone, putting it back to stock. How do i do this so that the s-off goes to s-on, and make sure everything is done properly? Thx for all your help

pretty sure you just flash the stock ruu and then run the unrevoked s-on tool.
i would run a factory reset before running the ruu and then again after just to make sure you are totally bone stock.

Should I use Rom manager to flash or use something else? Sorry for all the questions, just want to do this without problems.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA Premium App

Search the Incredible forum for ultimate get back to stock thread by Berzerker7, it'll tell you everything you need to know about what you're looking to do.
Here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=786436
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA Premium App

If you made a backup power off the phone and reboot it into recovery. Go to the "Back Up and Restore" Tab and then restore. Choose the date and you are back.

[Q] Help about rooting and other stuff

Sorry if this question has been asked before, but i could not find any.
So i got the Nexus beast yesterday, and it's already blazing me off with it's greatness. But i got a few problems though:
1. I got the jakjuxw, not the jakju, will i get the same updates as the jakju OTA, but only a week later or so?
2. I did not root the phone before starting using it, but i regret that now. Is there any way i can root it and NOT lose all of my apps and data? I have spent so many hours to customize this device and i dont want to start all over (yes i know about app backup's, but they are slow)
3. If i root but stay with the stock rom, will i still be getting the original OTA updates or does i have to flash the roms manually and wipe the phone every time?
I'd appreciate it if anyone could answer all the questions =)

Baguett said:
Sorry if this question has been asked before, but i could not find any.
So i got the Nexus beast yesterday, and it's already blazing me off with it's greatness. But i got a few problems though:
1. I got the jakjuxw, not the jakju, will i get the same updates as the jakju OTA, but only a week later or so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about this, it probably depends on what they want to release. I don't think there's any kind of guarantee they'll get the same updates, but there's also probably no reason why they wouldn't.
2. I did not root the phone before starting using it, but i regret that now. Is there any way i can root it and NOT lose all of my apps and data? I have spent so many hours to customize this device and i dont want to start all over (yes i know about app backup's, but they are slow)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to unlock the bootloader to root, and unlocking the bootloader wipes the device. Sorry. Someday an exploit might be found for ICS that allows you to root without unlocking.
3. If i root but stay with the stock rom, will i still be getting the original OTA updates or does i have to flash the roms manually and wipe the phone every time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you keep stock recovery, you'll still get OTA updates when rooted. If you use custom recovery like ClockworkMod, you'll have to do them manually (but you won't need to wipe). In both cases, applying the update will probably cause you to lose root and you'll have to re-root. This is easy if you've unlocked the bootloader.
If you root by using some future exploit, you might find that the update you just installed removed root and closed the hole that allowed you to gain it without unlocking the bootloader, and now you're left stuck without root. I'd say just unlock the bootloader now and be done with it. It'll be a pain, but then you don't need to worry about it again.

phazerorg said:
If you keep stock recovery, you'll still get OTA updates when rooted. If you use custom recovery like ClockworkMod, you'll have to do them manually (but you won't need to wipe). In both cases, applying the update will probably cause you to lose root and you'll have to re-root. This is easy if you've unlocked the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok thanks
Just unlocked it and rooted it, but i think im gonna install the official google 4.0.2 rom, i wil get the OTA updates then too right?
edit: how am i able to flash a rom without CWM? Also do i really not need to wipe my phone if i use CWM? i had to do it on my Desire.

Baguett said:
ok thanks
Just unlocked it and rooted it, but i think im gonna install the official google 4.0.2 rom, i wil get the OTA updates then too right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but the updates will probably unroot you. You should be able to just re-root after. If using CWM you can probably flash superuser right after flashing the update and not lose root at all. This is what I always did with my Nexus One when I still had the rooted stock ROM.
edit: how am i able to flash a rom without CWM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the ROM comes as images (like the Google factory images) you can flash with fastboot. The Google ones come with a script that uses fastboot to do it for you.
Also do i really not need to wipe my phone if i use CWM? i had to do it on my Desire.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant installing updates here... you don't usually need to wipe if you are installing updates to your current ROM, such as OTA updates to the stock ROM. You need to wipe if you're changing ROMs. It's probably no different than your Desire.

[Q] Rooted phone and want to install OTA update

The OTA 4.4.3 update is now available for my phone, but I've rooted it, and I've read the horror stories so I'm not going to blunder blindly into this
My rooting experience went a little poorly - I thought I was doing the right thing by backing everything up on the phone first, using Helium. Unfortunately Helium simply did the backup onto the internal storage itself, so it all got wiped during the process anyway.
Anyway, I got over that, but now I want to install the OTA 4.4.3 update. So here's the things I've done which I think are relevant:
1. Installed TWRP recovery, as required for rooting
2. Have flashed the SuperSU program for root
3. AFAIK I'm still on "stock" - I haven't gone out to find any special roms etc
4. Had to reinstall the calc and flashlight apps as they were missing after the whole exercise (so many I'm not on stock, or they would be there?)
5. I have installed Xposed Framework and the Sense 6 tweaks and GravityBox apps.
6. I tried to uninstall some system apps (Facebook, Twitter, things I don't use) with a root uninstaller program, but every time the phone reboots they re-appear, so I think I need s-off to do that properly?
7. I've 'Disabled' the weibo app through the standard app info button
I understand I have to go back to the "stock recovery" in order to do the OTA update, but is there anything else in the above list that I need to do anything about?
Will going back to the stock recovery mean I lose all of the content on my device again, and have to restore it from a backup? If I use the HTC backup app to back up all my phone data on the rooted 4.4.2 I'm running, can this then be restored onto the 4.4.3 version?
Also is the problem I mention in #6 solved by going s-off?

Lanthanide said:
The OTA 4.4.3 update is now available for my phone, but I've rooted it, and I've read the horror stories so I'm not going to blunder blindly into this
My rooting experience went a little poorly - I thought I was doing the right thing by backing everything up on the phone first, using Helium. Unfortunately Helium simply did the backup onto the internal storage itself, so it all got wiped during the process anyway.
Anyway, I got over that, but now I want to install the OTA 4.4.3 update. So here's the things I've done which I think are relevant:
1. Installed TWRP recovery, as required for rooting
2. Have flashed the SuperSU program for root
3. AFAIK I'm still on "stock" - I haven't gone out to find any special roms etc
4. Had to reinstall the calc and flashlight apps as they were missing after the whole exercise (so many I'm not on stock, or they would be there?)
5. I have installed Xposed Framework and the Sense 6 tweaks and GravityBox apps.
6. I tried to uninstall some system apps (Facebook, Twitter, things I don't use) with a root uninstaller program, but every time the phone reboots they re-appear, so I think I need s-off to do that properly?
7. I've 'Disabled' the weibo app through the standard app info button
I understand I have to go back to the "stock recovery" in order to do the OTA update, but is there anything else in the above list that I need to do anything about?
Will going back to the stock recovery mean I lose all of the content on my device again, and have to restore it from a backup? If I use the HTC backup app to back up all my phone data on the rooted 4.4.2 I'm running, can this then be restored onto the 4.4.3 version?
Also is the problem I mention in #6 solved by going s-off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing back stock recovery you won't loose anything. This just happens during the unlock process if done with HTCDev.
Good that you are not S-Off and FB, Twitter and so on are still installed, as otherwise you wouldn't be abled to perform the OTA. An OTA is only going to run if the whole system is unchanged.
Only thing that's quite likely going to happen, is that you root is lost after the OTA. Tthus you would have to flash TWRP and the SuperSu again, after the OTA.

HTCNerdYoda said:
Flashing back stock recovery you won't loose anything. This just happens during the unlock process if done with HTCDev.
Good that you are not S-Off and FB, Twitter and so on are still installed, as otherwise you wouldn't be abled to perform the OTA. An OTA is only going to run if the whole system is unchanged.
Only thing that's quite likely going to happen, is that you root is lost after the OTA. Tthus you would have to flash TWRP and the SuperSu again, after the OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it didn't matter if you were s/off or not, so long as recovery and OS were stock and CID matched (or were SuperCID).

bruce7373 said:
I thought it didn't matter if you were s/off or not, so long as recovery and OS were stock and CID matched (or were SuperCID).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't matter in general. But it matters in case that you used S-Off to uninstall system APPs Thus an OTA wouldn't succeed.
That's what I wanted to say in my post above
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Free mobile app

Wow found my answer already. Just to confirm. I'm in the same situation. Rooted. Installed twrp and su. Went to s-off with firewater but got the whelp message.
Got the OTA update in this morning. Tried installing it, went to my recovery so I tried to install it. It failed of course. Phone is still ok.
I'm just making sure I'll do this ok. Gotta go back to original recovery then install it or am I just better off going to a custom rom?
On my vivid, I used paranoid when it was available, used pacman for a bit. Also used the CyanogenMod. I know recommendation shouldn't be made but i know on my vivid there were lots of issues since there wasn't a specific team rolling out the roms but someone porting them from the specific team. Is there a team dedicated to this phone? If so are their roms leaps ahead of the ones ported over? Just looking at the downloads you can tell which one is the most popular, that doesn't always mean they are the best.
Thanks for any advice.

Yuskow said:
Wow found my answer already. Just to confirm. I'm in the same situation. Rooted. Installed twrp and su. Went to s-off with firewater but got the whelp message.
Got the OTA update in this morning. Tried installing it, went to my recovery so I tried to install it. It failed of course. Phone is still ok.
I'm just making sure I'll do this ok. Gotta go back to original recovery then install it or am I just better off going to a custom rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would revert to stock recovery and get me this OTA. And you need a 2.22.xxx FW for some of the custom ROMs currently available.
It's the fastest way to update your firmware anyway
Alternatively you could try to perform an S-Off using SunShine and paying 25$ for it, as I did to flash the newest FW.

HTCNerdYoda said:
I would revert to stock recovery and get me this OTA. And you need a 2.22.xxx FW for some of the custom ROMs currently available.
It's the fastest way to update your firmware anyway
Alternatively you could try to perform an S-Off using SunShine and paying 25$ for it, as I did to flash the newest FW.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got my cid as bm 001
so i got the nandroid backup here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2701376
now i just do a restore under twrp?
is the s-off really worth it?

Yuskow said:
Got my cid as bm 001
so i got the nandroid backup here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2701376
now i just do a restore under twrp?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as the ROM you are using is stock and you only routetd, you just need to flash stock recovery for the OTA to succeed.
Yuskow said:
is the s-off really worth it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well from my point of view: yes it is. Needed S-Off to debrand my One M8 and change CID to a WWE one. Well and additionally you can do a lot more if the security flag is on off (never without propper reading before doing it of course).

Yuskow said:
Wow found my answer already. Just to confirm. I'm in the same situation. Rooted. Installed twrp and su. Went to s-off with firewater but got the whelp message.
Got the OTA update in this morning. Tried installing it, went to my recovery so I tried to install it. It failed of course. Phone is still ok.
I'm just making sure I'll do this ok. Gotta go back to original recovery then install it or am I just better off going to a custom rom?
On my vivid, I used paranoid when it was available, used pacman for a bit. Also used the CyanogenMod. I know recommendation shouldn't be made but i know on my vivid there were lots of issues since there wasn't a specific team rolling out the roms but someone porting them from the specific team. Is there a team dedicated to this phone? If so are their roms leaps ahead of the ones ported over? Just looking at the downloads you can tell which one is the most popular, that doesn't always mean they are the best.
Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the Vivid as well and ended up with a 4.4.2 ROM which seemed to be the most current that was available at the time, but can't remember the name or the dev.
As for the M8, I've been on ARHD almost exclusively and think it's one of the best ROMs out there. I've tried Viper, MaximusHD, Renovate also, but always come back to ARHD.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2694917
---------- Post added at 07:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 AM ----------
HTCNerdYoda said:
As long as the ROM you are using is stock and you only routetd, you just need to flash stock recovery for the OTA to succeed.
Well from my point of view: yes it is. Needed S-Off to debrand my One M8 and change CID to a WWE one. Well and additionally you can do a lot more if the security flag is on off (never without propper reading before doing it of course).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the WWE edition and am currently with ATT. I'm considering their new update mainly to see if the new firmware/radio will give me better LTE speeds. The fw is 2.23 based. Will that be a problem if or when I return to ARHD which is on 2.22?

bruce7373 said:
I have the WWE edition and am currently with ATT. I'm considering their new update mainly to see if the new firmware/radio will give me better LTE speeds. The fw is 2.23 based. Will that be a problem if or when I return to ARHD which is on 2.22?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a really good question. Regarding ViperOne I could tell that running 1.8.0 (which was on 1.54.xx base) with 2.22.xxx FW worked flawlessly. So I would guess this should work just fine.
At least it's worth a try. Maybe better ask in the ROM thread.

Used arhd on my vivid for a bit. Must say it was an ok rom but lots of issues in general with all new roms on the vivid. Hardware too outdated. Maybe I'll give it a shot. Really leaning to a de-senced one.

HTCNerdYoda said:
Flashing back stock recovery you won't loose anything. This just happens during the unlock process if done with HTCDev.
Good that you are not S-Off and FB, Twitter and so on are still installed, as otherwise you wouldn't be abled to perform the OTA. An OTA is only going to run if the whole system is unchanged.
Only thing that's quite likely going to happen, is that you root is lost after the OTA. Tthus you would have to flash TWRP and the SuperSu again, after the OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, that's encouraging.
My CID is HTC__621 although I don't think I need that for just flashing back to stock recovery. My version is 1.54.709.12, so I downloaded the matching recovery from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2701376 and flashed it. I confirmed that the stock recovery was installed by booting to it and getting the red triangle etc.
Then I downloaded the OTA upgrade and told it to install. I didn't watch the installation progress, but eventually it went to the red triangle screen and finally rebooted. But I'm still on 1.54.709.12, so I take that to mean the OTA failed. When I go to system update, it checks and finds one available and offers to download it again, which I haven't done.
I'm wondering if 'disabling' the weibo program could have caused the update to fail? Or possibly I *did* actually uninstall a stock program or two that I mentioned at #6 and that's what's preventing the update?
Anyway, I made a complete nandroid backup on the external SD card before I flashed the recovery. It seems like the easiest approach now would be to flash a stock ROM for HTC__621 then do the OTA upgrade. After that, I could restore my HTC sync (the app) backup from the cloud, but if I wasn't happy with that I could recover the data portion of my nandroid backup?

Lanthanide said:
Ok, that's encouraging.
Anyway, I made a complete nandroid backup on the external SD card before I flashed the recovery. It seems like the easiest approach now would be to flash a stock ROM for HTC__621 then do the OTA upgrade. After that, I could restore my HTC sync (the app) backup from the cloud, but if I wasn't happy with that I could recover the data portion of my nandroid backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact you are right. The OTA fails as something on the system has been changed that's critical to the OTA.
So I would back up the data on the phone I need, download a stock nandroid backup for your CID, install with twrp, re-flash stock recovery and perform the OTA again.

HTCNerdYoda said:
In fact you are right. The OTA fails as something on the system has been changed that's critical to the OTA.
So I would back up the data on the phone I need, download a stock nandroid backup for your CID, install with twrp, re-flash stock recovery and perform the OTA again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, so I put on a stock nadroid backup for HTC__621, changed to stock recovery, but the OTA update is still failing at around the 30% mark.
Actually I've just noticed that the stock ROM I put on doesn't have the calc or flashlight apps, but when I originally bought the phone they were on there. I had subsequently installed them using the apps on this thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2699906
But maybe that is what is preventing me from doing the OTA now?
Edit: Right, so doing some more reading, it seems that HTC included these 'stock' apps in the /data directory instead of /system, so when doing the HTCDev install, they get wiped. But there was a note in that thread saying that for the One M7, they would actually do a hash of those apps too and if they weren't there the update would fail.
Someone linked to this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2703759 which says the APKs in the first one were from the M7, and these are from M8, and it also included another one called Seven Digital (yet another bloatware app I don't care about, hence why I didn't notice it was gone). Anyway I installed those 3 apps, but the OTA update still fails at around the 30% mark. I notice that the thread says preload APKs for 1.54.401.5, but my phone is running 1.54.709.12, so if they really are doing hashing for all of these apps, the update might be expectly a slightly different version and therefore fail the hash check?

Resolved!
Right, posting as new post because I solved it!
I searched through the collection thread and luckily found someone else who has HTC__621 who wanted to do the 4.4.3 upgrade as well. ckpv5 stepped in to lend a hand with this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54598052&postcount=1514
The TWRP stock ROM he posted there includes the flashlight and calculator app, as well as another one that looks like it was missing - WeChat. So now the OTA update has applied as expected. :highfive
I'll suggest Mr Hofs remove the existing nandroid backup for HTC__621 that he has there because it isn't complete.

Weirdly after all that was done, now that I have 4.4.3, the calc and flashlight apps are again missing; no sign of WeChat either. So I'll probably have to go through this whole performance again next time I want to OTA update?
Edit: More findings. In installing Xposed Framework on my phone, it can't do the 'classical' install because of S-on, instead it flashes it through recovery. So I suspect this could have been preventing the OTA update as well.

Lanthanide said:
Weirdly after all that was done, now that I have 4.4.3, the calc and flashlight apps are again missing; no sign of WeChat either. So I'll probably have to go through this whole performance again next time I want to OTA update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because you relocked bootloader when you did the OTA update. So those files were deleted when you re-unlocked bootloader after OTA done.
There's a TWRP backup for the latest here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55097943&postcount=1744
Just a note : there is no need to relock bootloader to do OTA update.

ckpv5 said:
Because you relocked bootloader when you did the OTA update. So those files were deleted when you re-unlocked bootloader after OTA done.
There's a TWRP backup for the latest here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55097943&postcount=1744
Just a note : there is no need to relock bootloader to do OTA update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, at least there's an explanation for what happened, but I didn't at any point explicitly lock the bootloader. All I did was:
1. Flash TWRP recovery
2. Flash the ROM you provided
3. Boot the phone, going through the setup stuff to configure wifi etc
4. Booted to fastboot and flashed to stock recovery
5. Rebooted phone, downloaded and installed OTA update
6. Booted to fastboot and re-flashed TWRP, ran nandroid backup and then installed superSU when offered
At what point would the locking of the bootloader have occurred?

Lanthanide said:
At what point would the locking of the bootloader have occurred?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Re-unlocking bootloader is one scenario that may happen that remove the preload folder.
Restoring an old backup which doesn't have the preload folder is another scenario.
Anyway that is easily can be fix by pushing the preload folder from OTA zip to /data
then make a new backup for future OTA

ckpv5 said:
Re-unlocking bootloader is one scenario that may happen that remove the preload folder.
Restoring an old backup which doesn't have the preload folder is another scenario.
Anyway that is easily can be fix by pushing the preload folder from OTA zip to /data
then make a new backup for future OTA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, well like I said, I didn't explicitly choose the lock the bootloader at any point, and the nandroid backup that you created *did* have the extra apps in there (I confirmed their presence at step 3 in my sequence).
Note that I'm not trying to be argumentative, just explaining my experience in case this might help others in the future.