Question about factory reset option...

[marklyn]

My S6 (SM-G920V) phone was rooted until July of 2016. I had to send the phone into a Samsung repair center because the battery was swelling and they would replace it. When I got the phone back they had upgraded the firmware to the current version at that time, thus decimating my root. Oh well.
Since then my phone never updates with a newer version firmware. I suspect it is because when I was rooted I renamed the files that are responsible for checking for an update and performing the update.
In fact if I try to manually update the phone, I get a 'settings has stopped' type message.
My thinking (correct me if I'm wrong) is that when Samsung updated my phone those parts of the system I changed are still changed, like auto updates that I essentially killed.
I went into a Best Buy yesterday and the Samsung person there manually updated my phone to the now current firmware.

If this is true and since I can no longer go back to root, is there a way I can really wipe the phone, I mean totally wipe it and re-load the current firmware? I don't think the factory reset actually does that and I've seen varying opinions on this. Does anyone have any direct knowledge of this ?

 

[lucianus_luciferus]

if the phone was updated by flashing the new firmware then everything on the phone is gone including the files you have modified. you can reflash the firmware if you want but I am pretty sure that a factory reset will do just fine

 

[smvim]

If this is true and since I can no longer go back to root, is there a way I can really wipe the phone, I mean totally wipe it and re-load the current firmware? I don't think the factory reset actually does that and I've seen varying opinions on this.

The internal storage in your S6 has several partitions, most are system related partitions and then there's the /data partition. Unless you're rooted you won't have direct access to any of those restricted system partitions. As a common user you only have full access to /data. A Factory Reset only wipes that /data partition, where your personal files, settings, and user installed apps are stored. It does nothing to any of the system partitions, the Android OS is untouched. If you were rooted before a Factory Reset you're still rooted afterwards. Re-flashing the ROM however is different issue. Basically its the same as doing a operating system reload on a PC. A stock ROM returns you to an un-rooted state and you then need to re-root your phone. Keep in mind that a when rooted and if you flash a third-party ROM than any OTA upgrades from your carrier won't work. As Android evolves some of the things that absolutely required rooting a couple of versions back are not as much a necessity. Is rooting something want or something you need?

 

[marklyn]

Thanks smvim for the info. I actually don't really need to go back to root and from what I know about the S6 version I have, I can't now anyway, which is ok.
I just wanted to know if a factory reset puts back all original files, which might clear up my issue.

Thanks

 

[smvim]

I just wanted to know if a factory reset puts back all original files, which might clear up my issue.

Yeah, a Factory Reset doesn't restore anything, all it does is clear the /data partition. Nothing gets changed in the OS and if you didn't do a backup of all your files those are gone. There are file recovery utilities that will possibly be able to restore most of your files (emphasis on 'possibly' and 'most' can just as easily be replaced with 'some') but restoring everything after a Reset isn't an option.