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Do the factory reset after updating to ICS!

I would try the cache partition wipe first, before doing the factory reset. I suspect the benefit from the factory reset is the clean cache partition.

I didn't do a FDR, and have no issues other than battery life. Did the cache wipe and it seems to have solved that one so far.

You lose nothing (data, apps, etc) with the cache wipe, so doing it first costs nothing. If you still need to, you can then do the FDR. Just my .02.
 
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I know that idea has been thrown around on here since the OTA...but...

My phone seemed to be working fine without doing the reset, but I did it anyway (2 days after the update) and I'm glad I did...

Several little things came to life on my phone after the reset...all my apps were restored by Google, as well as my contacts and everything...no good reason not to do the reset.

It did make a difference...

Seconded. I tried the dirty install and had problems. One factory reset later and things were much better.

Then I rooted and tweaked... and things could never be better in any way shape or form. (20 hours on battery with 74% battery life to go... :D:D:D)
 
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My experience with the FDR wasn't what I was hoping, but at least I finally got my phone back to pre-reset good. It was initially done with the hope that my phone's constant toggling betwixt LTE/nada/3G/nada/repeat would stop. It's less-so, but I can blame that on living just inside of LTEville, anyway...

If not rooted, you can download my backup from the play store. It is $5, but will save a lot of time by backing up data and apps

For some reason, Backup Pro wouldn't reco'nize my SD card for the restore. Took me a few days to find that an uninstall/reinstall (or: edit path 'mnt/sdcard' to read 'mnt/sdcard-ext') did the trick, as discovered here:
http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid-bionic/442381-mybackup-pro-question.html

During my research, I'd found something to try going forward:
rerware | Oracle of Geek

I would try the cache partition wipe first, before doing the factory reset. I suspect the benefit from the factory reset is the clean cache partition.
I didn't do a FDR, and have no issues other than battery life. Did the cache wipe and it seems to have solved that one so far.
You lose nothing (data, apps, etc) with the cache wipe, so doing it first costs nothing. If you still need to, you can then do the FDR. Just my .02.

Sage advice that I didn't try first, since I'd thought the restore experience would be eazy-peazy...

Cheers
 
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My phone seems to be running fine after the update but I wanted to do a reset just to see if it will speed it up any.

My big issue is that if I do a reset I dont want to have to go back through and set up all of my apps again. I dont care about having to d/l them again, it is having to remember all my passwords and usernames and log back into everything and having to re-bookmark all my favorite sites. Also setting up all my different email addresses is a HUGE pain in the ass. Does anybody know if there is an app that will restore all of those things for me after a reset?
 
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Root and download titanium backup. You can back up all your apps and data and when you restore it you won't have set any notification settings up or any other settings. For picture messages as long as you save them to your sd card then you won't have to back them up. If there just in your messaging app then you can download apps from the market to back up your SMS
 
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I would try the cache partition wipe first, before doing the factory reset. I suspect the benefit from the factory reset is the clean cache partition.

I didn't do a FDR, and have no issues other than battery life. Did the cache wipe and it seems to have solved that one so far.

You lose nothing (data, apps, etc) with the cache wipe, so doing it first costs nothing. If you still need to, you can then do the FDR. Just my .02.

+1 to this. Wiping the cache solved all of the jitter/lag and flat out strange quirks I was having since the ICS OTA.
 
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seriously? This is bullshit. an update should be seamless and intuitive and NOT cause hiccups and glitches that require a factory reset for the phone to work normally..... yet somehow these updates always mess everything up instead of improving it.... same thing happened with my previous smartphones.

so now, apparently, after I spent months tweaking the phone to get it exactly how i want it - in order for the phone to operate correctly after the update, i have to reset it and lose all my saved personal data - photos, texts, notes, reminders, calendars, schedules, maps, etc. ?

re-loading apps may only a PITA, but i'm not interested in losing forever, all the other personal data i have saved in the phone. Nor am i interested in going through some whole process to save it elsewhere, then transfer it all back.

Although i'm in IT and am tech savvy, i'm NOT a big phone geek who's interested in playing with all this stuff. For me the entire point of these fancy high-tech smartphones is ease-of-use, and technical superiority - "set it and forget it" - so the user doesn't have to mess with them. Phone AND all updates should work seamlessly and smoothly, without the user having to go through this with every update.
 
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seriously? This is bullshit. an update should be seamless and intuitive and NOT cause hiccups and glitches that require a factory reset for the phone to work normally..... yet somehow these updates always mess everything up instead of improving it.... same thing happened with my previous smartphones.

so now, apparently, after I spent months tweaking the phone to get it exactly how i want it - in order for the phone to operate correctly after the update, i have to reset it and lose all my saved personal data - photos, texts, notes, reminders, calendars, schedules, maps, etc. ?

re-loading apps may only a PITA, but i'm not interested in losing forever, all the other personal data i have saved in the phone. Nor am i interested in going through some whole process to save it elsewhere, then transfer it all back.

Although i'm in IT and am tech savvy, i'm NOT a big phone geek who's interested in playing with all this stuff. For me the entire point of these fancy high-tech smartphones is ease-of-use, and technical superiority - "set it and forget it" - so the user doesn't have to mess with them. Phone AND all updates should work seamlessly and smoothly, without the user having to go through this with every update.

Maybe you should go back to a flip phone. If you're Mister IT then you know that just like on a computer it is never a good idea to update to a new os without starting fresh. Ics is a major update. It's like going from windows xp to windows 7. You would wipe data when you do that so I don't understand why it's so hard for people to understand why you should do the same on our phones.
 
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i DO understand that, my point is, that it shouldn't be an auto push. and what i DON'T understand is why a new OS is being called an 'update', or what it is that is so great, about the ICS OS specifically. it should be the user's choice - not an automatic OTA push.

and i don't switch out OS's on a computer, precisely because it is such a giant pain. i've had to do it a few times out of necessity, but typically if i want a whole new OS, i get a whole new machine.

so why would i want to do it on a phone? Regular users like myself, who aren't phone geeks who love to play around with their phone SW, just want a good performing product that works well for daily use.

and why is a whole new OS being held out as just an 'update' - switching out the OS, is NOT just an 'update' to existing functionality - it's a major change, that i don't want to deal with on a phone. that's kinda my point. A regular update would integrate seamlessly, not require going back to square one with a factory reset.

yet the OTA push came and DL'd it, whether i wanted it or not. and now i keep getting the reminders to install it..... and after reading the feedback from those who have made the change, i'm not convinced that ICS is that much better to make it worth dealing with it.
 
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Learn to back stuff up? It's not that hard to do. Download an app, push a button and bam everything you need is saved to a folder on your sd card. Then when you install it after the reset it brings everything back. And if you are using a custom launcher like launcher pro or nova then you can backup your home screens so there isn't even anything you have to set up. Can't get much easier than that. I don't understand why people seem like it's such a big deal. It would take maybe an hour tops to set all your apps back up the way you had them if you decided not to make backups.
 
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Learn to back stuff up? It's not that hard to do. Download an app, push a button and bam everything you need is saved to a folder on your sd card. Then when you install it after the reset it brings everything back. And if you are using a custom launcher like launcher pro or nova then you can backup your home screens so there isn't even anything you have to set up. Can't get much easier than that. I don't understand why people seem like it's such a big deal. It would take maybe an hour tops to set all your apps back up the way you had them if you decided not to make backups.

@MsBlue - You need to take a deep breath, exhale and relax. Like other posters have said, just do a simple Cache Wipe and you'll be good. ICS is legit and you'll see why after doing a Cache Wipe.

Guys/Gals...let's remember there are some issues / quirks that people have reported that are not going away even with a FDS!

So I guess there is some legitimacy to the complaints we've been hearing from various users.
 
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Can someone please post how to do this cache par wipe? Thanks!

  1. Power the phone off
  2. Press and hold the volume down, volume up and power button until the recovery screen appears.
  3. Use the volume down button to select "Recovery" and then press the volume up to confirm the selection.
  4. The phone will do a little reboot thing, display the dual core logo thing and then an Android next to a triangle with a yellow exclamation point will appear. At this point press the volume up and volume down buttons at the same time.
  5. If you did everything correctly you are now at the Android System Recovery Screen. To clear the cache press the volume down button until you have selected "wipe cache partition". Press the power button to confirm the selection and it will wipe the cache partition.
  6. Once the cache is cleared press the volume up button to select "Reboot System Now" and press the power button to confirm the selection. If the "Reboot System Now" is already selected then just press the power button to confirm the selection and the phone will reboot.
 
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seriously? This is bullshit. an update should be seamless and intuitive and NOT cause hiccups and glitches that require a factory reset for the phone to work normally............. that's kinda my point. A regular update would integrate seamlessly, not require going back to square one with a factory reset.....

so why would i want to do it on a phone? Regular users like myself, who aren't phone geeks who love to play around with their phone SW, just want a good performing product that works well for daily use......

yet the OTA push came and DL'd it, whether i wanted it or not. and now i keep getting the reminders to install it..... and after reading the feedback from those who have made the change, i'm not convinced that ICS is that much better to make it worth dealing with it.

I registered to strongly agree with everything MsBlue posted as my situation is the same. I've been thru disastrous OTA upgrades/updates....one of which took days to recover from and the phone was never 'right' again.

I do not want this ICS 'update' for all of these reasons and I resent VZW/Googlerola(GR) or whoever that is forcing it. Yes, you can hit 'Install Later' but eventually it will force itself onto the phone.

I've watched my wife struggle thru the 're-arrangement' of several features and some new issues on her phone as she inadvertently allowed the 'update'.

I live by the billable hour. I have hours invested in cfg'ing/learning my phone to where I can do everything quickly & efficiently. That was an investment I chose to make...and now that investment is at risk. Will VZW/GR compensate me for the time required to adjust/correct/repair/re-learn following this 'update' ?

Image if you tried to go to work one day only to find that your 4 month old car's company had secretly overnight switched the position of the stereo's tuning and volume knobs, re-cfg'd the stereo to only receive AM (unless, of course, you learn & perfrom a complicated 'FM enablement procedure'), reduced your MPG to under half what it was, caused it to now occasionally overheat, reversed the turn signals, rearranged PRNDL21, and all of your instruments are now only lit at night by a single dim blue light. But, says the car co., you can easily fix some of this by buying $20 of special tools, taking out the seats, opening some black box and switching the red, blue, & green wires.

We wouldn't tolerate it.

But, for some reason its OK for a phone company.

I've done a Cache Wipe which stopped the install prompts ....for now, but it's only a matter of time until the inevitable occurs.....
 
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Alright, I was one of those who advocated the Cache Wipe solution, and it had worked to remedy the problems I was having post-ICS OTA update. Apparently, that remedy was short lived. So I opted to do a full factory reset to see if that would fix the issue.

Now, I knew the risks going in - losing my customizations, apps, etc. However, the way I see it, if the factory reset got rid of the problems I was having, then it was worth the additional time to perform.

I did the factory reset last night (7/25, 6:30pm) - used the "preferred" method per Verizon's support page (i.e., Settings => Privacy => Factory Reset). The reset itself took less than 15 minutes. Went through the initial setup (e.g., location settings, contacts, email, etc) which was a breeze. The only long part was restoring/updating apps (81 in total) which took a good 15 minutes.

I can safely say that the factory reset is the truth because it became apparent to me that a number of my apps did not restore, namely because they weren't compatible with ICS. Keep that in mind when you're venting about how this or that went to crap post-OTA. Not only that, but the visuals of the phone changed, another reminder that the post-OTA had some vestiges of GB likely left in it that were causes my issues. Heck, even the fonts changed!

Performance wise, it is night and day. Pre-factory reset, touching an app and seeing it launch saw lag. Scrolling through homepages or lists saw lag. Random black screens, force closes and other odd things that were the norm post-OTA have disappeared. Post-factory reset, the phone is just smooth as butter. There is no stutter, no lag, no weird kinks - even with the number of things I have running on my phone.

IMHO, ICS lived up to the hype that was behind it. Did certain things change that I don't like? Of course (I can't for the life of me understand why they changed how you add widgets, but c'est la vie), but the changes are minimal and, for the most part, non-intrusive.

So count me among those who feel that the Factory Reset is the way to go. Does it suck that the ICS OTA didn't do all of this on its own? Yes, but that is life, especially when you consider that every single phone while similar from a hardware perspective, can be a completely different landscape software wise.
 
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