Does a "factory/hard reset" actually work?

[Jerzyiroc]

Does doing a factory reset actually help with issues you may be having? It seems to me the answer would be yes based on some of the things I've read but there's always more to a story. A friend of mine is having some serious issues with his Evo since updating to 2.2. He's almost about to return it. I want to suggest him doing a factory reset but I don't want him to have to start from scratch if it's not really gonna help.

 

[SdotJ]

I think that while it dose help with issues froyo as a whole was not prepared for properly(HTC Sense in looking at you ). The experience was much better before froyo. Yes froyo helps a great deal but it seems so many apps where caught off guard when they have had so much time to update there apps for froyo. Think about it this way how many of the average customers even know that a factory reset is needed after updating? These will be the most vocal in there issues when returning the phone. It's a shame to because the Evo is a beastly phone but with the epic having time to learn from HTC's mistakes should have a better outing and less issues for the average customer with froyo (if it ships with it that is.)

 

[rem_kujawa]

I would try it first you have nothing to lose but maybe an hour of your time.

 

[robber]

It worked for me. Surprisingly effective.

I suggest reading the sticky which pretty much covers it from every angle. My only pain now is codec issue with Pandora/etc which hopefully will be addressed soon. Otherwise my evo is running like a top. Lightening fast with instantaneous response.

Other OSs seem to handle these types of updates more smoothly. Android/sense really need to need a clean slate.

 

[justin_aga]

if we factory reset, what do we lose? also, how do we do it? does it improve battery?

 

[Jerzyiroc]

We lose everything. It's as if you just got the phone on your first day. Make sure you sync everything before you do it and make sure you get appbrain to sync your apps. if you have a terrible memory like me then take pictures somehow of your homescreens so you can set it back to how you had it before.

 

[srfcrzy]

I did a hard reset before Froyo because I was having weird force close/restart issues and it totally took care of it. I lost almost nothing because I had--totally inadvertently--prepared for it. Here's what I had that I would recommend doing before the hard reset to minimize disruption:

1. Save contacts as "Google Contacts" and make sure they are synched with Google. This is the only way you can get contact info back--they will come back to phone when you sign into Google after hard reset.

2. Install "App Brain" app on phone and sync it. This way, all of the instaled apps will sync back to phone after hard reset.

3. Install "Astro File Manager" app. Not sure if/how much this helped, but I lost none of my pics or music because I found all on my SD card via Astro after the hard reset.

I literally hardly missed a beat with personalizing the phone, but the reset took care of buggy issues I was having. Good luck!

 

[splmonster]

Factory reset will in fact work.. It clears everything, including all caches. Also another good thing to do, is format your SD card as well. Take everything off of it that you need, then format it. Start both fresh, that fixed every single problem I had with Froyo. Both a factory reset and formatting my SD.

 

[justin_aga]

Im gonna try it, how do I factory reset?

 

[Jerzyiroc]

Settings > SD & phone storage > Factory data reset

 

[Jerzyiroc]

Question for those that had issues with choppy video playback, did the hard reset fix the problem?

 

[justin_aga]

just did it, I hope I dont regret it lol

 

[justin_aga]

do I have to manually install the apps I saved with appbrain?

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

I did a factory reset with 2.1 and nothing was lost off the SD card (pics, music, etc...). That being said, make sure you have your SD card backed up to your PC, just in case. My first reset was prior to having appbrain installed, so I'm not sure about the reinstall process via appbrain. I do know that you do not have to repay for apps you already paid for. The market app has a downloads section that keeps a running list of all the apps you have downloaded and paid for, and allows you to re-download them again for free. I think I'm gonna try this just to see if it makes a difference, especially with battery life.

 

[rizorith]

What about saved progress on games and things like that? I know appbrain will sync the apps but I don't think it's going to save that information.

 

[Jerzyiroc]

How about I just leave the SD card out while I reset it?

 

[Jerzyiroc]

Soooo I synced everything before I did the factory reset but I'm still missing a bunch of contacts. What did I do wrong??

 

[katoman1932]

Completely solved the few issues I had. You will need to reinstall the apps you purchased and restore your personal data. This was not an issue for me because I only had my EVO for three weeks. Now it flies!

 

[Buckeyes]

Jerzyiroc, I did a Factory reset a couple of weeks ago and removed the sd card before I did it. I was having sense ui issues. It fixed the problem, and the phone has worked fine since.

 

[eagle63]

"Does a factory reset actually work"?

Well I guess it depends on what you're trying to fix. If the problem you're facing is due to a bug in Android or Sense, then no. Hard reseting only clears out user data, which HAS been known to cause some odd problems from time to time - but I'd argue that many of those problems aren't truly solved by a hard-reset, instead they're just getting suppressed for a while. Maybe I'm the lone dissenter here, but I think hard reseting is overrated.

That being said, if all else fails and you have a little time on your hands, it's probably worth a try.