Can't Get Any Gapps Working with CM12.1

[demarcmj]

I need to send my Nexus 6 in for a warranty replacement so I need to run my GS3 for a few days. It's been a while since I've used my GS3 so I wanted to get it all up-to-date first. I went and downloaded the latest nightly of CM12.1 and the "stock" TK Gapps.

I did a clean flash (factory reset, format system, flash ROM, flash Gapps) and when it boots up I get constant "______ has stopped" messages from all the google stuff. After I press "OK" as fast as I can for a minute I can get to the home screen, where I can see that all of the google app icons just show the little android guy (indicating it's not installed) and when I select any of them it tells me that the app is not installed.

I tried clearing cache and dalvik and that didn't work. I tried re-flashing from scratch and that didn't work. I tried the pico TK Gapps and that didn't work. I tried the stock and pico Open Gapps and that didn't work. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but no matter what I try the result is always the same.

One time, just as a sanity check, I flashed just the ROM and no Gapps and that worked fine. Not sure what that tells me but just something to note.

Please help.

 

[sirlaser]

I was also forced to do a clean flash of CM 12.1 + gapps recently. This gapps file worked for me: highonandroid.com/download-android-5-1-lollipop-gapps/ (I can't post a link since I'm new).

One issue: apparently it requires flashing with a recent version of TWRP recovery. Doing it with CWN or a old TWRP will return an error. Hope this helps.