Factory Reset: Backup with Helium?

[encelle111]

I am on Verizon, will probably take the leap and install Lollipop on my Note 4, after some of the early adopters are tortured. Sounds like some of the issues may be resolved with a factory reset. Never having done, and having no desire to reconfigure the phone to its current state, I have a few questions.

1. Is Helium the best option for a backup? Any issues? Is the premium version really needed? Is there any advantage to using PC backup rather than an external SD card in the Note 4?

2. would the order be
a. Do Helium backup
b. Download Lollipop
c. Factory reset
d. Reinstall old contents via the backed up Helium file

Thanks for your insights:-!

 

[B. Diddy]

I've never used it, but from what I've researched, Helium is probably the best option. Kies is worth considering, but I don't think that will backup any of your non-Samsung app data.

The sequence you propose sounds right. I think it's more reliable to backup to your PC, because there are just too many posts on these forums about SD card problems with Samsung devices (i.e., corrupt files).

 

[Rukbat]

I have all my data backed up on Helium to my external card (and the carbon folder [that's its folder's name] backed up to my desktop and 2 cloud accounts). Data is the most valuable part of a computer.

I've used Helium to back up everything when totally switching ROMs, not just when doing a factory reset, so I know it works.

There's a premium version? I use the free one.

What you may want to do, though,is back up everything (including the apps, if you have the space on your card), update to 5.1 (Don't do any earlier Lollipop updates - they didn't fix the memory leak until 5.1), do a system cache partition clear (in recovery), and see if you have any problems. If not, you don't need a factory reset. If you need it you have the Helium backup. (I personally prefer to use TWRP to back up the entire data partition in one shot. I've used that to fill new ROMS with my apps and data too.)

 

[Bosbouer]

+1 for helium.