Problem With ICS OTA? Factory Reset

[mightyfacundo]

After accepting an OTA, doing a factory reset is always a good idea. You want to start with a clean slate with the new O.S., which is what ICS is. For those of you that are rooted, you know to do this every time you flash a new ROM, but for those who aren't rooted, this is a new, slightly annoying process. However, "Dirty Flashing" (not doing a complete wipe) almost always leads to problems, so it stands to reason that flashing/accepting the OTA without doing a factory reset/wipe will lead to problems. This will not fix every problem that everyone is experiencing, but I believe it will fix 90% of the problems people are having. I would never claim 100%, because as we all know, the Bolt is very temperamental!

To perform a factory reset, go to Settings, then Storage, then scroll down to the Factory Reset option. This will wipe your phone, but WON'T WIPE YOUR SD CARD or your pictures because they are saved directly to your sd card.

I will quote Unobtanium, who did a good job of explaining in another thread:

I haven't done a factory reset since shortly after getting the phone, but it won't (or is not supposed to) erase any SD card data. That's a straightforward back-up, just in case: Plug the phone into a computer, mount as a drive, and copy everything that is on your SD card onto your computer hard drive. Take screenshots or photos of your home screen layout. Uninstall / disable security software, especially avast! (if you use it). Disable Google two-factor authentication (if you use it) before you start. From what I understand, tweaks and settings on a non-rooted phone are harder to back-up. I'm using MyBackup Pro (non-rooted) and I think there is some stuff that it can't save without root access.

So, if you want to save your text messages, grab MyBackup Pro from the Market and use it to save them. Choose Backup, then Data, then Local (so it will save to your sd card), and then choose SMS, MMS, and whatever else you see on the menu that you want to save. After the factory reset, just follow the prompts in the app to restore what you have saved. The free version might do all of this as well, but I haven't used it in so long, I'm not sure. Once you have your sd card backed up on your pc, and your texts backed up by MyBackup, you can perform the factory reset without worrying about losing everything. You will still have to set up your phone again, but you won't have lost everything.

Hopefully this helps anyone having problems and anyone hesitant about wiping their Bolt. Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll be happy to try and help.

 

[natehoy]

Thankfully no problems here that a couple of reboots didn't fix.

 

[Unobtanium]

I did a factory reset today and it made a BIG difference for me. I was getting inconsistency in lag time, and Sense was running out of memory and crashing. I started at 5:45 a.m. with coffee and a full back-up onto my computer. I removed passwords from a couple of apps in addition to the steps I described above. By 8:15 a.m., I essentially had my phone back, except for the layout of the apps on the home screens. I chose to download the apps from the Market / Play, just to make sure about compatibility with ICS. I also disabled a bunch of the Verizon bloatware.Thanks goodness I still have Unlimited data <g>. I also did not download a few apps that I wasn't using, but had not uninstalled. It has taken a couple of more hours this afternoon to get my icons mostly back where they were, but I am using more folders because I like the creation, layout and titling better than in Gingerbread.

The bottom line is the Thunderbolt is much smoother and not lagging as many have reported here. I would say just make time, prepare well and do it.

 

[freegentile]

I am sadly trying to get my Tbolt to find the ICS update after unrooting it from a Revolutionary root & the little blue Android, yellow exclamation, & white outline Triangle of Death. OTA did nothing @ first & showed no values for Status & no new updates available. Now, 2 days later, it shows Status w/ the 2.11.605.19710RD update, which I take it is ICS. Shows Code:501, as well. However, using Check new is doing nothing but saying "No New Software Update Available". Do I need to remove battery & SIM to make OTA somehow find ICS out there in the great nether regions of Verizon? Much obliged.

 

[bricon123]

I am sadly trying to get my Tbolt to find the ICS update after unrooting it from a Revolutionary root & the little blue Android, yellow exclamation, & white outline Triangle of Death. OTA did nothing @ first & showed no values for Status & no new updates available. Now, 2 days later, it shows Status w/ the 2.11.605.19710RD update, which I take it is ICS. Shows Code:501, as well. However, using Check new is doing nothing but saying "No New Software Update Available". Do I need to remove battery & SIM to make OTA somehow find ICS out there in the great nether regions of Verizon? Much obliged.

Perhaps it would be better to post your question on a new thread. One related to rooted phones would be good. This seems to be one for doing a factory reset after the ics update.