Do's and Don'ts - Factory restore

[Brandwin]

What are the do's and don'ts? when doing a factory restore?

Not sure the best way tyo back up contacts (although they should be backed up to my google account) pics are saved to my SD card... and I moved certain info from my apps to SD card, so I think I should be good?

Going to see if this helps my battery life.

Thanks!

 

[Rukbat]

1) Do you really need to do a factory restore? Maybe wiping the cache partition (from Settings - the Storage page has Cache, pressing that lets you clear it) will solve whatever problem you're having. Battery life is affected by a lot of things - programs running in the background (Greenify will stop some of them even if you aren't rooted), discharging the battery too far too often (40% should be the lower limit - discharging until the phone shuts off every time can kill the battery in 6 months), having a weak signal (if the phone can't hear the tower, the tower probably can't hear the phone, so the phone increases transmitter power, using more battery), no signal, so the phone is constantly searching for a signal, and a lot more.

2) You need to save any data any apps store - use Helium. (If the phone isn't rooted, Helium will tell you to download a file to your PC - do it. Helium needs root or that file to work.) Copy the carbon folder (that's Helium's folder) to your SD card or PC.

You really should back your apps up too - so you don't have to spend the downloading time to reinstall them. I use App Backup & Restore for that, because it creates apk files, so you can install a single app without running AB&R. Helium will also back up apps, but you have to run Helium to restore them.

3) Back up your texts. MyPhoneExplorer will do that - and also back up all your contacts, whether they're Google contacts or not. (Phone, Device and SIM contacts aren't synced by Google.) (It will also let you run your phone from your PC, but that's another thread.)

 

[Brandwin]

Maybe not... doing a little digging and it seems like my battery life might not be as bad as I thought. Don't really want to go through the restore process if I don't have to.

 

[wesyates]

Battery life issues can be an effect of third party apps. In my case it was. I used (oddly enough) a battery monitoring app and a streaming audio app and my battery went downhill quickly.

Put the device in safe mode. That's easy (see your manual for that) and see if the battery life magically comes back. If so, its an app. Remove any apps that you installed before the battery drain occurred. Get rid of those damn game apps unless you read the reviews and are sure they won't drain your battery.

As mentioned, if you have the latest 5.0 (lollipop) update, wipe the cache partition. Again, find the procedure for that. It changes device to device and some Androids don't allow you to wipe the cache partition.

I say do this for backups: 1. Use and abuse Google sync. Its there. Use it. 2. Use your carriers backup or cloud solution. Its there. Use it. It also captures non-Google contacts. 3. Connect the phone to a computer, allow it to show up as a connected device (most will) and do a physical copy of the Phone and/or Card folders (or whatever there is). This way you will have three 'backups' of the phone.

I just wish there was a complete, one-stop solution for Androids. Nothing I have found really fits the bill. Apple has iTunes which can do a complete backup. Nothing like that for Android; or as far as I can see.

 

[Rukbat]

I say do this for backups: 1. Use and abuse Google sync. Its there. Use it. 2. Use your carriers backup or cloud solution. Its there. Use it. It also captures non-Google contacts. 3. Connect the phone to a computer, allow it to show up as a connected device (most will) and do a physical copy of the Phone and/or Card folders (or whatever there is). This way you will have three 'backups' of the phone.

As I always say, "too many backups" is a meaningless phrase.

I just wish there was a complete, one-stop solution for Androids. Nothing I have found really fits the bill. Apple has iTunes which can do a complete backup. Nothing like that for Android; or as far as I can see.

If you want to replace the stock recovery, TWRP (and, I think CWM, although I haven't used it in a few years) can back up the entire data partition (and the system partition as well if you want to) in one operation.

 

[BullGuard8]

the biggest battery life saving tip for me was disabling location from the settings, my battery life doubled

 

[George Collins1]

I thought Kies on the computer did a complete backup. Is this not true?

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