Restoring after wiping phone

[dcrudolph9]

I notice that many users seem to casually wipe their phones when any problem is encountered. This seems like a huge pain to me, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Yes, my contact and calendar data is in the cloud, but there's still lots I'd have to do after wiping to restore my phone to its current state, including:

- manually restoring data and settings on all 3rd party apps (even if app has backup files for this, they still have to be restored manually)
- restoring home screens to their prior state, including setting up all shortcuts, widgets, etc.

This takes a long time. Are there any shortcuts for all this that I'm not aware of?

David

 

[Golfdriver97]

I notice that many users seem to casually wipe their phones when any problem is encountered. This seems like a huge pain to me, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Yes, my contact and calendar data is in the cloud, but there's still lots I'd have to do after wiping to restore my phone to its current state, including:

- manually restoring data and settings on all 3rd party apps (even if app has backup files for this, they still have to be restored manually)
- restoring home screens to their prior state, including setting up all shortcuts, widgets, etc.

This takes a long time. Are there any shortcuts for all this that I'm not aware of?

David

Welcome to the forums!
Clearing system cache in recovery can clear many problems. Often when a phone has issues it is probably due to a cached data conflict between two updates. I normally suggest this first, as probably works about 7 out of 10 times. Then, MAYBE, I might suggest a reset.

 

[anon(847090)]

yes, you are missing something!!!! Here is my setup and i format my phone every time a new Android is released except 4.3(since it was minor update)

System Settings:
obviously you know that your contact and calendar data are in cloud. your system settings, playstore settings and wallpaper are also on the cloud.

Music/Pictures/Videos:
I auto upload all my Picture/Video to Google+. so if i format i have to do nothing. If i need the image on phone i would download it to phone from G+.
All my Music is on Google and I pin few albums to phone -- This is one thing i have to do manually

Google Apps:
All of Google Apps data are on cloud. so there is nothing to setup. but once i sign in after a format. I open Gmail/Hangouts/Maps/Play Store/Google+
just to let it sync and i open other Google apps whenever i need it.

3rd Part Apps:

many 3rd party apps are backed up on cloud. I dont worry about that.
I only take backup for the one that are not in cloud, Including the launcher(ie, the home screen icons,widgets etc)

restoring just those apps takes about 5 minutes and about 20 minutes in the beginning to download all apps.

I would be up and running in 30-40 minutes

 

[dcrudolph9]

How do you back up the launcher? I've never seen an option for that.

 

[mr_nobody]

How do you back up the launcher? I've never seen an option for that.

Apex and nova both offer this option... The stock launcher I don't think does.

 

[junglejunkie]

I use Titanium Backup Pro, back up all non system apps and settings, and use the built in web server to copy it off the phone (sometimes). This process does require you to have a rooted phone though. Then the restore process is as simple as flashing new ROM, installing Titanium Backup, and restoring from your backup.

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

dcrudolph9:

I think a lot of this also comes down to whether you're the type of person who cares about going through the setup process over again from time to time, or not.

To be fair, I think I bring a different perspective on this from a lot of current-day tech users/enthusiasts.

Back in the 80s and 90s (and obviously before that as well) we used to get a lot more into troubleshooting issues and problems with computers. However, what has happened for a lot of people, including me, is that as things became more complex, convoluted, involved, and frankly more time-consuming, is that we only care to troubleshoot a certain limited number of problems, and beyond that we just nuke-n-pave because the hassle of endless troubleshooting just isn't worth it.

Besides, as a wipe is the final determinant in many cases of software issue / hardware issue determination, I've gotten used to wiping because I want to ensure nothing else could be causing misbehavior.