Nexus 7 2013 - When should I factory reset?

[CreepyWolf]

I've been wanting to factory reset for a while. Yesterday Android M got avaiable for my tablet and I'm wondering if I should update it, then factory reset it or factory reset it first and then update? What would you recommend? I do not want to miss out on that update as I'm not skilled enough to flash a rom or whatever.

 

[Slow_S10]

I just got the Marshmallow update on my Nexus 7 last night and I did not find it necessary to do a factory reset at all. Generally I will do an update first and then if it seems like it is causing issues I will do a factory reset to see if it fixes it. But in general a factory reset is not required when updating to a new version. I think I have only had to do a factory reset once out of the last 5 or 6 system updates that I have received on various devices.

But if you were planning to do a reset anyway, either way works. The system update will probably take less time to install on a clean device, but it may bump you device back in line for updates. Personally if the update is available I would go ahead and do the update first even if I was planning on resetting it later.

 

[CreepyWolf]

I just got the Marshmallow update on my Nexus 7 last night and I did not find it necessary to do a factory reset at all. Generally I will do an update first and then if it seems like it is causing issues I will do a factory reset to see if it fixes it. But in general a factory reset is not required when updating to a new version. I think I have only had to do a factory reset once out of the last 5 or 6 system updates that I have received on various devices.

But if you were planning to do a reset anyway, either way works. The system update will probably take less time to install on a clean device, but it may bump you device back in line for updates. Personally if the update is available I would go ahead and do the update first even if I was planning on resetting it later.

I know it is not required to be able to update. I just want to clean it up and make it run like new again. Thank you still!

 

[Sicily1918]

If you're gonna do that, you should go the distance and install the Google Factory Images (I did that with every Nexus in my house... lemme tell ya, that's a lot of factory installs)... that's the ultimate reset... plus, you'll have a super-clean OS with no legacy files.

https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

 

[CreepyWolf]

If you're gonna do that, you should go the distance and install the Google Factory Images (I did that with every Nexus in my house... lemme tell ya, that's a lot of factory installs)... that's the ultimate reset... plus, you'll have a super-clean OS with no legacy files.

https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

Thank you for taking your time answering. But as I'm not experienced enough to flash images and such I'm not gonna risk messing up my tablet as I'm not interested in buying a new tablet at this moment.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

If it were me, I'd update to 6.0 and then perform the factory reset. Part of the update process replaces your system partition with the new version, so short of sideloading an image from Google (as suggested above) it's the closest you'll get to a completely clean install.

Just FYI... generally performing a system cache clear is all you need to clean out cruft without losing personal data. If you're set on a factory reset then by all means go for it, but remember the cache clear for down the road. There's a great write-up on performing one in the rooting subforum for the Nexus 7 2013 forum.