How to do a factory reset? on ics

[albertzelaya]

I been reading that a factory reset or a master reset will fix the lag issue and everything else wrong with my phone. My question is how do I do this and what will that erase and not erase? Things like my music and pictures? Videos? I just want my phone lag free.

 

[L2 Fly]

I been reading that a factory reset or a master reset will fix the lag issue and everything else wrong with my phone. My question is how do I do this and what will that erase and not erase? Things like my music and pictures? Videos? I just want my phone lag free.

Idk if it will make your phone less laggy, but it will erase everything. Movies, pictures, music, contacts, apps, etc. will all be gone. The only things you'll have are the original apps and the original wallpapers. To do this in ICS, I believe it's settings>backup & reset>factory reset.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[Sicily1918]

There's another way. Either way, as L2 Fly wrote, you'll lose EVERYTHING.

Back everything up to your SD card (or computer if no SD) and unmount it, then remove it -- it shouldn't be necessary, but better safe than sorry. You may also wanna back up your contacts, too (I exported my Google account stuff to a csv, just in case).

Next, go to the Settings -> Storage menu and choose Format USB Storage.

Now for the magic erase:

1. Power off the phone.
2. With the phone off, hold the VOL UP, VOL DOWN, and POWER buttons (in that order -- don't let them go).
3. When "SAMSUNG" displays, you can let go of the buttons.
4. The device'll load to the Android system recovery <3e> screen.
5. Use the VOLUME buttons to navigate the 4 or 5 options and POWER button to select them.
   • Select "wipe cache partition". Agree if a warning pops up.
   • Select "wipe data/factory reset". Agree if a warning pops up.
   • If necessary, select "reboot system now" -- I forget if you need to; I'm betting you do.
6. The phone will come back up and, in my case at least, it took 60 looong seconds before I got to the Android welcome and set up screen -- give it time

You're done; it'll be as if they factory-installed ICS and you just bought the phone.

Personally I didn't need to do this, but even with a package-managed OS like Linux, I generally prefer to wipe and reinstall the OS when doing an upgrade (as opposed to an update; 2.3.5 to 2.3.6, keep all... 2.3x to 4.0x, wipe) -- it's natural that I would do the same with Android

 

[roberts68]

let us know if it works for you!
i've read mixed reviews on whether a factory reset works or not.

mine is bad too and i am at the point where i'll erase everything it means getting my phone back to pre-ics speed/functionality.

 

[albertzelaya]

I did it twice. One from the reset back up setting and on holding the buttons and rebooting. It feels the same. Irk if its how this is supposed to be. I watched a video on YouTube and that phone seems to lag as much as mine so I guess mine its OK. But I know it didn't lag as much and got a black screen while it loaded the phone app or the contact app. I hope there is a fix for this. Even typing here now it freezes when I'm typing. The thing is I really like ics but thinking how do I put gingerbread back. Guess I can't

 

[cd247]

I did 4 factory resets, still lags, still getting random black screens, still getting unresponsive programs and I still have this random yellow line going from the top to the bottom of my screen (on the left side). I wish I never updated to ICS. I updated 2 galaxy sII's at the same time...Mine went to crap, my wife's works great.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[roberts68]

i did the ics upgrade without resetting the phone and had terrible problems.
i did the factory reset and it works great now.
had to reload all my apps though which was a pain in the a$$
i just took screen shots of all the pages with all my apps i have
then downloaded them all again (while I watched the HEAT win last night)
i HIGHLY recommend following the instructions above.
I did KIES and downloaded all my pics and vids before reformatting
i use google mail and calendar so i didnt have to worry about saving my contacts.
DO IT!