Help Does a factory reset mess up programming

[bugger]

I just got a INC2 on July 8th, on monday the 11th, I got a OTA for the newest software.
If I do a factory reset, will it revert back to the old software that came on the phone? If so, how would I go about and get the new software again?

 

[blackepoxy]

No, doing a factory reset after updating your software will not delete the update and put you back to what you were running before.
Actually, after updating and you are seeing some lags or bugs it might be a good idea to factory reset if a hard reset (pulling the battery) does not fix the problem(s).

 

[bugger]

Just what I was looking for. Thank you for clearing that up.

 

[RBEmerson]

Whoa! Waitone! There is no need to do a Factory Reset as part of the update. Let the update do its own restarts and all will be well. A Factory Reset is fairly drastic; it will flush out all of your user data and files. If you didn't back it (data, apps, whatever) up somehow, it'll be gone after the Factory Reset. Usually there's a lot of stuff on the SD and apps can restore, based on Market records, but a Factory Reset is actually more destructive than an update. Think at least twice before you pull the trigger on a Factory Reset.

 

[vzwuser76]

Whoa! Waitone! There is no need to do a Factory Reset as part of the update. Let the update do its own restarts and all will be well. A Factory Reset is fairly drastic; it will flush out all of your user data and files. If you didn't back it (data, apps, whatever) up somehow, it'll be gone after the Factory Reset. Usually there's a lot of stuff on the SD and apps can restore, based on Market records, but a Factory Reset is actually more destructive than an update. Think at least twice before you pull the trigger on a Factory Reset.

Factory resets are not that drastic if you're prepared. And with everything that is stored on phones these days it'd be stupid not to back them up.

For contacts the main backups are either google, verizon's backup assistant, or export them to the sd card.

For apps the two main ways are appbrain or export them to the sd card.

Anything else (pics, music, vids, etc.) will most likely already be on the sd card. Either connect the phone to a pc or unmount the sd card & copy the data with a card reader.

For settings either take a pic of the screens or jot down the settings so you don't have to struggle to remember them later.

After having these safeguards in place, a factory reset should take anywhere from 1/2 - 2 hours depending on your connection speed and the amount of apps on your device.

As far as there not being a need to do a factory reset, you might get away with having no issues after an OTA update, but that doesn't mean that the device would not benefit from a clean install either. Currently I have not had to do a factory reset after GB, but I did after Froyo on my Incredible1. I almost always power down to charge the phone, so the system resets don't always fix the issue. And hard resets have never worked out for me except when the phone was locked on the wrong tower.

Another thing is a clean install might fix problems you don't even know you had (phone speed, radio issues, etc.).

Personally I use cloud based backups like Google & Appbrain, because if your phone gets lost, stolen or destroyed, the contacts & apps on the sd card maybe lost as well.

 

[blackepoxy]

This is what I was going to do. When I activate my DINC2 on the 31st. The centennial and verizon merger will be complete finally!!! I have waited years for this, literally. Goodbye 528 mhz wildfire on a gsm EDGE network!!!

I will call and activate. Then I was going to check for updates and use the internet pass through mode connecting to a pc to download the gingerbread update. Then after that while my phone is in this brand new state with nothing I have put on it, I was going to pull the trigger on a factory reset. I have nothing that will be wiped.Seems to me this is the absolute best time to do this. Any potential bugs, issues or lag I would have experienced would be eradicated be the clean install, like a pro-active maintenance measure. Like you said, stuff I would have never even known about.
Now if I wait, and start adding and changing everything like I want it, transferring everything from my wildfire (trust me it is a lot too, I have stuff just waiting in dropbox to use on this phone that I was unable to have because of the limitations of my wildfire and centennial's Edge network combined) and start experiencing problems that I think only a factory reset can fix, then I will not be a happy camper!!!
Then if I think I need to reset, that will be alot of things I don't want to go through.
What 'yall think about doing it this way?