Factory reset as regular maintenance?

[DrSPH]

As my frustration with my Strat was growing ... hanging at random times, restarting randomly, freezing intermittently ... figured it only made sense to attempt a factory reset before declaring it a failed device.

I had gone so far as to purchase an extended battery because I was only getting a few hours with the original, but before the reset I carefully timed the extended battery as lasting only 6.5 hours with barely moderate use.

Oh, what a difference a wipe makes!

OK, a post-wipe lesson was that I really didn't need all of the apps I had loaded. But, again, I wasn't crazy nuts about apps (still had 20% core memory, 60% on the SD).

But given how zippity fast its running -- with now 16 hours running and 56% left on the extended battery -- it leads to me ask, should a factory reset be a part of regular maintenance, every 3, 6, 9 months?

Actually, I just checked and my Strat is a year old.
But the question still stands.
Is it reasonable to expect a device in moderate use to not need a reset?
I'm guessing that somewhere in the past year I installed/uninstalled something that left a monkey in the wrench of the system.

 

[jrh4054]

I would never do a factory reset unless that was as a last resort to fix an issue. Most of us long-time Strat users started having serious problems after the system update last summer. I ended up having to do a reset and it took two days to get the phone back like it was. Thankfully, I haven't had some of the battery, shut down, etc problems that others have. I keep thinking I'll have a major crash as others have had. I can't wait for my July upgrade.

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

I'm guessing that somewhere in the past year I installed/uninstalled something that left a monkey in the wrench of the system.

I'm kind of with jrh4054 on factory resets, though fortunately I've never had to do one.

I just want to note, though, that, as much fun as I'm having picturing a monkey in a system wrench, I think the expression you're looking for is "left a monkey wrench in the works" (see a discussion here). A monkey wrench is an old-fashioned tool, kind of a pipe wrench with no "teeth" in its jaws. See the Wikipedia article.

 

[DrSPH]

Thanks Dave, the monkey in the wrench was supposd to be a play on words.

Still wondering about the negativity about resets.

1) I'm not a programmer, but doesn't use of a computing device involve leaving bits and pieces of apps that gum up the works?

2) I had a cache cleaner and system maintenance app running and needed to use them several times a day to restore a bit of speed. (I have not reinstalled them and haven't missed them - yet.)

3) Yes, starting from scratch was a bit annoying, less so with the automatic sync of most information. But, the Strat is running like new now, so why not reset?

I guess the bottom line question is: If a reset should NOT be an expected event, what could/should be done to avoid the need in the future?

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