Do you need to "reinstall" (reflash) the OS from time to time?

[ivanzorkic]

On Windows, in time, the OS becomes bloated and buggy. After installing and uninstalling various apps, once a year, I usually format the drive and reinstall everything. Main cause of this are the apps and the trash they leave behind. Registry entries, dlls, files in the system folder, god knows what.

While this is not a big problem on a PC, on a phone it's not as simple. You'd need to reflash the device to start over.

I try a lot of apps on my phone. Install, uninstall, install again. I like to try new things, for example, when the Fox News app came out, I installed it just to try it, then removed it as it was wasting valuable memory space (waiting on 2.2)

The question is: will trying out apps eventually bog down my phone? Do apps leave some trash behind? - and I'm not talking about files on the SD card (these can easily be recognized and removed with a file browser). I'm talking about something in the "system" part, like, in the ROM or in the Android OS files (not sure if this is possible, just asking)

I know bad apps can slow down your phone or waste battery life, but does removing them remove the negative side-effects as well? And am I free to try new apps without worrying that the Android OS will slow down as a result of numerous installs/uninstalls?

I like to try new apps, but I feel bad whenever I install something.

 

[JerryCrockford]

I'm the same....

Hate the thought of leaving bits and pieces in the phone when I uninstall apps. Had a Palm Treo years ago, and it did that.

With my HTC Legend, I have already discovered some remnants from an uninstalled app on the SD card, but not sure about the phone.

Would you really need to 're-flash' it though?

Wouldn't a factory reset do the job? Doesn't that take it back to 'out of the box' condition?

Cheers,

Jeremy

 

[IOWA]

On Windows, in time, the OS becomes bloated and buggy. After installing and uninstalling various apps, once a year, I usually format the drive and reinstall everything. Main cause of this are the apps and the trash they leave behind. Registry entries, dlls, files in the system folder, god knows what.

While this is not a big problem on a PC, on a phone it's not as simple. You'd need to reflash the device to start over.

I try a lot of apps on my phone. Install, uninstall, install again. I like to try new things, for example, when the Fox News app came out, I installed it just to try it, then removed it as it was wasting valuable memory space (waiting on 2.2)

The question is: will trying out apps eventually bog down my phone? Do apps leave some trash behind? - and I'm not talking about files on the SD card (these can easily be recognized and removed with a file browser). I'm talking about something in the "system" part, like, in the ROM or in the Android OS files (not sure if this is possible, just asking)

I know bad apps can slow down your phone or waste battery life, but does removing them remove the negative side-effects as well? And am I free to try new apps without worrying that the Android OS will slow down as a result of numerous installs/uninstalls?

I like to try new apps, but I feel bad whenever I install something.

This is a huge mis-conception. The reason why re-installing a fresh copy of windows helps, is because of user error. If you manually cleaned out your system registry(easy), and disabled all the JUNK over time you've downloaded and installed that starts at startup, then it would be just like new.

With android, there would be no left over remnants of any apps, due to the way it is built.

 

[TheBrit]

With android, there would be no left over remnants of any apps, due to the way it is built.

On the phone itself that's true. Some stuff does get left on the SD card though with some things. It's safe just to delete those files and folders once your app is removed.