Hey there,
I have been using CustomROMs on my Androids for 10+ years and I never ran into such an issue:
Until yesterday, I was running crDroid 9.8 on my Xiaomi Poco x3 Pro and tried a dirty-flash update to crDroid 9.15. While sideloading the package, after the verification of the package, it started listing:
Backing up AndroidAuto
Backing up AndroidDevicePolicy
.... Assistant, Books, Gmail, GoogleDialer etc...
After the flashing of the zip, it would then continue “restoring” these packages:
Restoring AndroidAuto
Restoring AndroidDevicePolicy etc.
When I booted into the system, I was lacking essential system apps like a Dialer, Calendar, Gallery etc.
Note that I hadn’t had any gapps installed before the update. I had been using a google-free system with the vanilla apps provided in crDroid 9.8
As I figured, a clean install would be the easiest way to properly fix that, I took the chance to finally switch over to /e/.
I followed the installation instructions provided in the documentation for my device. It was straightforward and easy.
However, to my huge surprise there was the same steps happening during the installation as described above! Even after I had done the factory reset in recovery!!
So, now with my freshly installed /e/ OS I am facing the same issue of not having the crucial system apps that would actually be shipped with the ROM.
I have no idea how this can happen, and I almost feel like my phone got invaded by google…
Please, can anyone help me fix this issue? Is there any part of where such a script of backup/restore gapps could be set up or installed where it would remain even after a factory reset?
I did have my phone rooted with magisk, and custom recovery twrp (which I replaced with the /e/ recovery now).
Please, please, any help highly appreciated! THANK YOU.