[ROM] OUKITEL U7 PLUS - STOCK ROMS & TWRP

[robneymcplum]

Hello,

I'm sticking with Marshmallow because I need xposed, and the gains from Nougat are not greater than the losses from no xposed, I'm on Cleopatra's last/latest marshmallow update .zip and TWRP 3.0.3 from needrom. All is working fine EXCEPT... I cannot restore ANY backup from TWRP.
Majority of the time an error is 'invalid argument' to do with no system, or not mounted, can 'fix' the system or change the file system within TWRP and try to restore, then restore just system and that wont boot either.
Can flash the rom and update again and restore data and THAT boots fine but everything goes wrong once installed as I have all google removed, and microG and xposed.
Have a ported AICP rom that also isnt booting from TWRP but I dont know if thats the rom or something else, as the stock rom backup wont boot either. Have tried:

Straight restore, no wipes
restore, full wipes, reboot
full wipes, restore
full wipes, restore, dalvik
suzip, restore, reboot
restore, suzip, reboot
Reflash firmware, restore all
reflash firmware, restore data (this boots but is so modified it is unusable)

And various combinations of these. Any help greatly appreciated