Opinions on factory reset after a period of use

[dianehelen]

I was seriously thinking about factory resetting my S4... it's suddenly slow as molasses... everything lags big time, app performance, screen transitions, app switching... it's really become awful... and I've been using Nova since the beginning. Clogged is a great way of putting it Diane... the phones arteries definitely seem clogged. I have a question though... the 4.4 update is a few weeks away if I believe the carrier so I am wondering what effect factory resetting has on software updates... if I wait until 4.4, and then do a factory reset... will 4.4 still be there or will it bring it back to an earlier version ? My tablet is still too new to experience any clogging but it wouldn't surprise me if it happens in a few months... might just be a TouchWiz thing. My question is pertinent here as 4.4 should also be around the corner for Note 10.1 users. I think I remember reading somewhere on XDA that it is actually a good thing to do a factory reset after a major software upgrade, but I don't remember where I read it and if it's accurate or just some poster's personal opinion.

All good questions. For me, my s4 is fine. I really don't do near as much I that as I do on the Note. I did have a weird experience with the last big update on s4. it totally overwrote all my home screens back to default. no one else seemed to have this and to this day I have no idea how that happened. Now, I routinely save screen shots of my home screens, in case some rogue update does that again. I'll see how things go and see if 4.4 arrives soon, and if it corrects my issues on the Note.

 

[charles777]

All good questions. For me, my s4 is fine. I really don't do near as much I that as I do on the Note. I did have a weird experience with the last big update on s4. it totally overwrote all my home screens back to default. no one else seemed to have this and to this day I have no idea how that happened. Now, I routinely save screen shots of my home screens, in case some rogue update does that again. I'll see how things go and see if 4.4 arrives soon, and if it corrects my issues on the Note.

Sounds like a good plan
When I receive 4.4 on my S4 if it's still "clogged" I'll factory reset it and see what happens.... as for the tablet, I haven't had any issues yet so nothing to decide for now.
Maybe somebody else will chime in about whether it's a good thing to factory reset after a major upgrade and we can decide once our tablets receive it.

 

[John Woo1]

Sounds like a good plan
When I receive 4.4 on my S4 if it's still "clogged" I'll factory reset it and see what happens.... as for the tablet, I haven't had any issues yet so nothing to decide for now.
Maybe somebody else will chime in about whether it's a good thing to factory reset after a major upgrade and we can decide once our tablets receive it.

*bumper...an accidently back key press erased mine long post. This time I make it short. *

Factory reset wont revert back to 4.3, after updated to 4.4 and only recommended cause it will delete all apps, that mostly arent updated yet for 4.4. Mostly main reason for most of the problems occurs after each new firmware update.
Either its minor bugs with the new firmware and just need for Samsung to release fixes for it.

Personally I have never done any factory reset when running stock ROMs, on all mine devices, only time is when sended it in for repairs and Sammy techs is doing it for me.

Mine way to track problems, is too remember when the problems occurs, then see the latest apps installed and uninstall one by one, too see if it fix the problem and search on the web too see if many others having same problem. There are alot of bad written apps, that causes sluggishness on the device and get rid of that bad written app will help.

Factory reset is just a fast easy way to delete all of those bad written apps or "incompatible apps with others apps" and reinstall all apps after factory reset, will just get back to step 1.

 

[dianehelen]

Mine way to track problems, is too remember when the problems occurs, then see the latest apps installed and uninstall one by one, too see if it fix the problem and search on the web too see if many others having same problem. There are alot of bad written apps, that causes sluggishness on the device and get rid of that bad written app will help..

How do you know when a particular problem starts. , Its not like you try every single app and function of the tablet after every app is installed. If you DO, you have wayyyy more time on your hands than I do

 

[John Woo1]

How do you know when a particular problem starts. , Its not like you try every single app and function of the tablet after every app is installed. If you DO, you have wayyyy more time on your hands than I do

Yeah, I know, this method is real time wasting and its hard to track down the bad app. But I really hate to reconfigure everything, input all login/passwords again and losing all app/game data.
With rooted device, its not a problem to back it all up and with non rooted device, its pain in the *** to get everything back up running.

Factory reset is a last resort for me, if cant find the problem that make the device unusable and luckily it havent gone so far.

Galaxy Note SM-P605

 

[angry english]

I've just done a reset on mine and then disabled a lot of the apps I don't use and I'm having no lag at all now, I was not so happy with this note 2014 and was selling it but now I've restored and started again its fine

Posted via Android Central App

 

[dianehelen]

I've just done a reset on mine and then disabled a lot of the apps I don't use and I'm having no lag at all now, I was not so happy with this note 2014 and was selling it but now I've restored and started again its fine

Posted via Android Central App

Did you have alot of data on it that had to be backed up first? How much of a pain was it to redo home screens, logins, etc once it was back?
Also, didn't it just reload all the play store apps, so how did you know which ones to disable?

 

[angry english]

Did you have alot of data on it that had to be backed up first? How much of a pain was it to redo home screens, logins, etc once it was back?
Also, didn't it just reload all the play store apps, so how did you know which ones to disable?

I always disable as much as I can in app manager. No I don't have tons of data, mine just seemed bogged down for no reason, I'm always swapping and changing tablets so setting them back up takes about 30 mins

Posted via Android Central App

 

[dianehelen]

I always disable as much as I can in app manager. No I don't have tons of data, mine just seemed bogged down for no reason, I'm always swapping and changing tablets so setting them back up takes about 30 mins

Posted via Android Central App

huh ok. I have hundreds of photos, tunes, documents, s-notes, sketches, . I'll just let it go for a bit, if it gets unmanageable I'll have to bite the bullet and do it

 

[AMG_Roadster]

huh ok. I have hundreds of photos, tunes, documents, s-notes, sketches, . I'll just let it go for a bit, if it gets unmanageable I'll have to bite the bullet and do it

Sounds like a good use of the 50GB of Dropbox storage you get with the Note. Just backup and then restore from the cloud. It will not have the configuration and data from your tablet but that does not sound like a big concern to you.

 

[dianehelen]

Sounds like a good use of the 50GB of Dropbox storage you get with the Note. Just backup and then restore from the cloud. It will not have the configuration and data from your tablet but that does not sound like a big concern to you.

I can just as easy and faster just back up to a 64g sd card. But ya the configuration and setup it's important too. Logins, pw, various browsers bookmarks, ip addreses for the remotes I need to get to. All can be done, just a pain to do

 

[gollum18]

The only time you should do a factory reset is when you perform a major system update. Other than that you should just wipe your systems cache. It has the same effect minus deleting everything on the device.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[angry english]

Not true, didn't do a thing for mine

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Uschiekid]

How do you know when a particular problem starts. , Its not like you try every single app and function of the tablet after every app is installed. If you DO, you have wayyyy more time on your hands than I do

someone recommended battery doctor on a forum, and it has done a good job for me showing when an app is being rogue-ish. If an app either shows up as draining power excessively or in the rankings as a power abuser you might get a clue about a problem app. Sometimes I've realised through this method that an app I hadn't used in ages is running in the background a lot... and maybe needs settings adjusted, or uninstalled. Worth a try, maybe?

 

[monicakm]

I routinely clear the cache (s) when the urge hits.

Via my Note 3

Too bad there isn't a "hitting forehead" emoticon cause I know I'm going to need one when I ask this question.
Where do I clear cache? I've looked and looked and looked.

 

[monicakm]

Never mind (slapping forehead). I didn't find it in the help files and it wasn't anywhere in settings but it was in this thread :-[ I haven't checked to see if it's helped the movie stuttering
but it has NOT helped the delay in full resolution on some screens.

 

[CehowardNote7]

Well, put me in the "slowdown/clogged" club too. I noticed that my Note 2014 is clogging up a lot when looking at vids, such as on youtube. The hangups got so bad, I had to pull out my Note 3 to finish viewing some youtube vids. I have been going to a lot of sites on the Note lately, and just like you go to a lot sites on the PC, a lot of crap gets thrown on your computer, and in this case, the Note 2014. Good thing I don't have any apps that I am in love with, and all my pics and vids are on the sd card. So, a factory reset will be just fine for me. Going to try one more thing before I do the factory reset. Yesterday, I was at BB and happened to stop at the Samsung spot to look and asked about the GG Smartwatch 2, and to look at the Pro 12.2 again. To my big surprise, the Samsung rep, and new guy is a guru..I sat there for over an hour just talking with him..Make a long story short, he has a Note 3 and Note 2014. I am going catch up with him, see if he can show me how to clear away the crap on my Note 2014.. IMO, be almost like taking a workshop. Knowlegeable Samsung Reps are rare, extremly rare!!

 

[dianehelen]

Wow, very cool, keep us posted

 

[monicakm]

is the forthcoming update to KK likely to fix this problem?

 

[charles777]

is the forthcoming update to KK likely to fix this problem?

lol I wouldn't hold my breath
Quite a few of the reviews of the new Note 12.2 mention lag when using Multi Window... not a good sign ! It did make me happy to read that our tablet fared a bit better performance wise in certain benchmarks (and we're not even running KitKat) Like SpookDroid mentioned in another post... might be wise to get feedback from the forums before hitting Update the day KK comes out

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