Fearing the worst: What do I backup in 'master reset' circs?

Greetings,

I just posted another query to this forum regarding the very common "app keeps stopping" feature of some Android phones (mine is Galaxy S9+). My phone has that disease, and I have tried everything but the nuclear option (master reset) to fix it but have had no luck. In my other post I basically asked "What the heck else can I try besides master reset?" I would LOVE to hear something optimistic in response to that previous post, but...having tried a lot of stuff already (incl wipe cache partition)...my pessimistic/realistic gut says that we are probably heading for a master reset.

So, anticipating that worst case scenario, what do I need to know about a master reset? I know I need to backup (or lose) all my photos, files, downloads...what else? Do I lose my contacts? If so, I presume I can find instructions online on how to back those up, but maybe y'all can point me in the right direction. But what about my text conversations? Do they disappear in a master reset, or are they possibly "in the cloud" and become available to me again after the master reset? If the text conversations disappear, is there a way I can save those? I presume every single app I have ever downloaded from Google Play disappears? Am I supposed to log out of all possible Google accounts before I do a master reset for some reason?

I can't think of anything I could have possibly done to invite the Android "app keeps stopping" feature, but if there is ANYTHING anyone can think of to help me get this phone back to functional short of the nuclear option of master reset, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom!

Otherchuck

 

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response.

I have been playing around with other stuff re the "apps keep stopping" feature, and am becoming increasingly certain a "hard reset" is in my future (and, yes, I thought the term was "hard reset" rather than "master reset" but saw the latter term used elsewhere).

Full disclosure: I fear 'the cloud' like a celebrity actress who had naked pictures of herself on her phone also fears 'the cloud.' Rightly or wrongly, I assume that anything saved to 'the cloud' is now in public domain. My expectation of privacy/security as far as 'the cloud' is concerned is zero. Since I can 'hard' back-up photos and docs (and by 'hard' I mean simply file transfer, no cloud) those things aren't the problem. I'd like to save text conversations if I can, but not if that means that I have to save them to 'the cloud.'

You mentioned a product called 'SMS Backup & Restore.' Is there a 'cloud' component to that? If that product downloads text conversations locally to a file I can later access, great. If that product uploads conversations to 'the cloud' for me to download later, different story.

Thanks again! This whole affair has been so dispiriting. I wish there was a bricks-and-mortar place I could go to and say "Hi, please fix my phone." But there are no Android fix-it shops that I know of, and if there were, I think their first impulse would be to send everything to 'the cloud.'

otherchuck

 

Thanks for the kind advice ocnbrz, and Hadron (Smoke me a kipper)...I could not agree more with your characterization of "the cloud." Interesting that SMS Backup and Restore is not cloud-based.

I applied the fix I saw at the end of the latest update of the Endgadget piece, so we shall see.

One thing I saw when I was updating Android System WebView that cracked me up was this:

"Join the beta: Try new features before they're officially released and give your feedback to the developer"

I think I am part of the beta already, right? Tried the new features, and I doubt they want my feedback.

otherchuck