Phone acting weird, factory reset?

[mikedaub]

OK, my DInc has been acting SUPER weird lately. I have been getting more of the "clear free space" error that comes from the Facebook app, even though I don't use it, and recently, things have just been really, really laggy. When I type, it takes a couple seconds for it to catch up, sometimes I open an app and the screen will turn off (1 minute) before the app opens, today I hit the settings menu button, it sat at a black screen then just went to the home page, the battery life seems to be worse and now, at times, when I am charging at work, it says my usb isn't powerful enough to charge and then it just discharges the entire battery even though every day for the past year it has worked fine.

So, I am thinking a factory reset is in order. Its been a year (got it the first day when pre-bought through Verizon), and apps have come and gone, so I am sure there is a lot that can be cleaned up on the phone.

What do I have to do? Both my emails, K-9 program and Gmail are IMAP, so no backup needed, my contacts are all in my Gmail account, my apps should transfer down when I access the market, I will lose my texts, but not a big deal, and I will have to transfer my pics off...Anything else I am missing? I have never done a backup, and thinking I really don't need to, since email is IMAP and I don't store tons on the phone.. and I am not rooted.

Anything else I should know about before I hit the factory reset button? And is the factory reset the way to go to get it all cleaned off?

 

[dragonsamus]

i use an app call sms backup and restore. its free in the market and it works well. sounds like you know what youre doing. i dont think there is anything else but hitting the reset button and yes that is the best way to go about cleaning out the phone. good luck!

 

[PvilleComp]

Only thing you might want is games, like Angry Birds progress. It's not a biggie but there are apps in the market that will specifically back up Angry Birds for non root users.

Other than that you are goot to go!

 

[mikedaub]

Only thing you might want is games, like Angry Birds progress. It's not a biggie but there are apps in the market that will specifically back up Angry Birds for non root users.

Other than that you are goot to go!

Good point. Never thought of that. I don't have any games, but might have something else on there that isn't stored in the cloud or something like that. I will have to check into things like that..

 

[PvilleComp]

Very few apps hold state like games so you're probably ok. Banking apps and whatnot are all server side storage.

 

[Bobby J]

I just got one, what K-9 program do you have and where can i get it? i am K-9 also.

 

[mikedaub]

I gotta say, this was about the easiest thing I have done to a phone in a long time.

First, I synced all my apps with AppBrain, then formated the phone a couple times (just to make sure it was all cleaned up). Went to the market, downloaded AppBrain again, and synced it again. It told me all the apps I used to have, and it allowed me to directly download everything right from the market...Really slick process. Then, it was just plugging in my preferences for the couple of apps that needed it.

I would say, all together, it took me about 15 minutes start to finish, to have my phone be exactly where it was before the reformat, except it actually worked now. I can't believe I took so long to decide to do this.. Super easy. Thanks for all your help and suggestions..

With things this easy, it might persuade me to root the phone.

Bobby J: the K-9 program we are talking about is the e-mail program and it can be found by searching in the market.

 

[CGWaters]

Glad to hear the process went well. I'm considering performing a factor reset to (hopefully) clear constant 'low on space' warnings.

Did you have any apps from the Amazon.com Appstore for Android? If so, were you able to restore those, as well? (either with AppBrain or after installing the Amazon Appstore app)

 

[mikedaub]

Glad to hear the process went well. I'm considering performing a factor reset to (hopefully) clear constant 'low on space' warnings.

Did you have any apps from the Amazon.com Appstore for Android? If so, were you able to restore those, as well? (either with AppBrain or after installing the Amazon Appstore app)

The "low on space" problem was driving me completely nuts. I was doing it a couple times a day. I guess after a year of installing apps, removing them, putting more on, removing some, it just bogs the system down. I could tell instantly that the phone was MUCH faster after I cleaned it up.

I did not have anything from Amazon installed, just everything from the Android Market.

If you do decide to factory reset, do the AppBrain thing. It saved me a TON of time. Worked super slick and super easy.

 

[CGWaters]

Yeah, I'm a big fan of AppBrain!

Some (all?) of the apps I've obtained via the Amazon.com Appstore appear in AppBrain; but since it only interfaces with the Android Marketplace, AppBrain cannot restore or update those apps. It turns out that apps obtained via the Amazon.com Appstore *can* be easily restored--once the Appstore app has been installed.

 

[mikedaub]

Seems like it should be just as easy once you swipe it clean. It might almost be easier with Amazon, as you might be able to install all at once or something. With AppBrain, I had to click on every one individually, then it took me to the market and I installed. It was a couple clicks per app, but nothing that was all that bad. I would gladly rather do that then research the store for all of them..

 

[plemelin]

Liek you said it is a pain to have to install them one by one but nice that you can go to the Market on the phone and know what you did have installed. Also may be cleaner as you'll have the latest versions without all the updates.

 

[mikedaub]

I would assume things are MUCH cleaner than they were before. My phone was noticeably faster than before. Right before I did it, apps were crashing (my maps mostly) the "clear storage space" or whatever was always there and my keyboard lagged pretty bad. All is good to go now.

One thing is that the phone randomly restarted this morning. First time that every happened. I hit the snooze button on the alarm app and next thing I heard was the "DROID" from startup. A year and 1 month old and only 1 random reboot..I will take that. My blackberry did it daily..

 

[khriztian704]

does anybody know if a factory reset also works with rooted phones?? i mean if ur phone is rooted, can you just do the factory reset? or do u have to unroot it first? my dinc2 is rooted and im having lots of issues with it and im thinking of doing a factory reset and help on how to do it? will it bring all the stock apps back?

 

[PvilleComp]

Reset's just remove all data and apps that you loaded from the Play store. Any apps that are part of the ROM will stay, but the data will be wiped. Any apps you removed from the ROM will stay removed. You will not lose root on a reset, nor will it restore the factory ROM if you loaded a new ROM.

Hope this helps.