Phone very slow. Steps for reseting and reinstalling apps?

[Nooblet]

My wife and I both have the GS3 on Verizon and have been generally happy with them. They're almost 2 years old. In the last few months though, they have gotten much slower. My plan this weekend is to do a factory reset on both of them in order to bring back some zip. A few questions:

1. What backup app should I use? I'm leaning towards Helium since it claims to backup app settings.
2. Will the OS that's installed on the reset be the latest version or will several updates be required?
3. If updates are required, would an install directly to the latest OS (rather than several updates) make the phone run smoother? How could I get a version of the latest OS to install directly?
4. Will Helium or other backup apps install all apps at once or will I need to babysit the phone and approve the installation of each app?
5. Any other last minute advice?

Thanks VERY MUCH for all of your input, folks!

-Nooblet

 

[B. Diddy]

Before doing a full reset, have you tried wiping the system cache partition? This can sometimes improve performance, and won't erase any personal data: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ing-into-recovery-mode-galaxy-s2-s3-tab2.html

The other thing to consider is removing the SD card and seeing what happens. SD cards can get corrupted, particularly with Samsung devices, and a corrupt card can cause various issues.

 

[Nooblet]

Thanks for the advice. Tried both of those with only modest improvement. SD card was replaced recently.

 

[7nexus7]

If you haven't, update to KitKat. It may help.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[anon(749368)]

I would hold off on updating to Kit Kat, Verizon has a history of messing up the updates.

Back up your phone with Kies and factory reset. After that, go to Google play and reinstall your apps, but don't let it do it automatically, see what apps you use and install those. Too many as running may be the reason your phone is so slow. I just did a wipe on my fiancee's phone and now it's much faster. So much faster, that she doesn't want to upgrade just yet...

The panda has spoken

 

[AxlMyk]

I would hold off on updating to Kit Kat, Verizon has a history of messing up the updates.

The panda has mis-spoken

There is no reason to hold off on updating. All Verizon does is add a few apps.

AC App on SGS3