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Help Installing Google Play on Moto E with Cryanogenmod ROM

pwabrahams

pwabrahams

Well-Known Member
I'm trying to use Google Play on my Moto E with the Cryanogenmod ROM installed. I've gone through the procedures of obtaining the zipfile, entering Recovery mode, and installing the zipfile via TWRP. Everything at that stage appeared to be proceeding successfully, including the installation of a number of components.

But when I reboot, there's no sign of Google Play. It's not among the listed apps. How can I get it going? I assume that once I have Google Play operational, I can install any other apps that I want.
 
Bg260 said:
Which GApps package did you flash? I'm assuming you mean the Google Play Store?
Click to expand...

To be precise, I installed (via TWRP) the file open_gapps-arm-6.0-nano-20161023.zip.

I think I just discovered the problem: I downloaded the wrong version of gapps. Because it installed so easily, I assumed it was the correct one. Now the question is how I determine what version of Android I really have on my phone. From the recovery screen I discovered it's surnia, but what version number is that?
 
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When you flashed the gapps package, did it say 'successful' at the end of the process? I just flashed that exact package on an old Galaxy S3 (SGH-i747) and didn't have any problem with play. It was right there in my app drawer.
 
The GApps version should match the CyanogenMod version. If you flashed CM13 then GApps 6.0. If CM12 then, GApps 5.1 and so on. Are you wiping system partition and then flashing ROM/GApps back to back?
 
Bg260 said:
The GApps version should match the CyanogenMod version. If you flashed CM13 then GApps 6.0. If CM12 then, GApps 5.1 and so on. Are you wiping system partition and then flashing ROM/GApps back to back?
Click to expand...
I wonder if the problem is one step back: I might be running the wrong version of CyanogenMod. I think I have the right version of Gapps relative to CyanogenMod, since I accidentally tried to install the wrong version and the installer told me about it. I think the product indicated by the fastboot screen (if I"ve named that correctly) is surnia -- I assume that at least "surnia" is embedded in the phone's circuitry. To add to the confusion there are at least two versions of the Motorola Moto phones, E and G, and Motorola makes several non-Moto phones, I believe. And E itself has a number of versions and subversions -- which may be related to the other meaning of the word "subversion".

I don't remember the sequence in which I did the other operations, like restoring and wiping the system partition. At least the fact that there is a system partition seems pretty solid.
 
I always do a full wipe of System, Data, Davlik and cache. It doesn't actually wipe the system partition, it formats it. No need to wipe personal storage though.
Some may say otherwise, (aka. Dirty Flash) but if you want your ROM to settle in better, I would recommend that, as do most developers.
 
I think I found part of the problem but I don't know what to do about it. I went into Settings/Apps and discovered that in the 3-dot menu, whatever that's called, I had the choice of showing/hiding System. And once I showed it, all (or at least many) of the GApps programs showed up. But that still didn't cause them to show up on the main screen, or even in the apps listed by the six-dot icon, whatever it's called, on the main screen.
 
Do you have the play store? Once you have that the 'nano' version of gapps is only the core framework and you'd have to install the rest from play like gmail, hangouts, youtube, etc.
 
A while ago I flashed the stock version of gapps, which added a whole bunch of apps under System, but that list still didn't include PlayStore.
 
??? The core of the Google framework is the play store. I'm not quite sure how you can flash gapps and NOT get play.
 
I did discover one problem that goes way back, but I don't know what its ramifications are. When operating in recovery mode using TWRP, I was unable to unmount the system partition and therefore was unable to wipe it. Others reported the same problem. I eventually found this:
Hey i had this issue and finally pinned it down to the TWRP I was using. It turns Official TWRP has this issue. This can easily be resolved if u flash Squid's TWRP
Download the latest version from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/devd...0398#downloads​
So the standard TWRP causes this problem, but using this other version of TWRP solves it. Who woulda thought?
​
 
lunatic59 said:
Well, for Cyanogenmod, I would have thought CWM would have been the better choice of recoveries.
Click to expand...
You know far more about that than I do. Do you think it would be worth replacing TWRP by CWM?

Now here's something that's very interesting. After replacing TWRP with the corrected version of it, I wiped the partitions you suggested, this time including /system. And after restoring Cyanogetmod and Gapps, a lot more stuff appeared -- including the elusive Google Play. So I may have my system where it's supposed to be. Time will tell.

I'm amazed that this problem and its solution are not more widely known, and that Official Cyanogetmod hasn't been fixed. Even you apparently didn't know about it, and as you've shown, you're exceptionally well informed. And thanks again for all your help.
 
It's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, or more likely "been there, done that" syndrome. It does indeed sound like you've got a working installation. If everything works like phone calls, texting, wifi, bluetooth, etc. then I'd stick with it. :)
 
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