Everything comes back, except apps you downloaded that were free. Paid apps will show up in Market/downloads. You will have to reinstall them. Your specific settings/notifications will have to be reset, as will the way you have your screen set up. Just recreating it, takes a bit of time but nothing is "lost" for good.

 

Your free apps may not have come back after reset, but mine did. Your icons will have to be placed back on the desktop, but the software gets reinstalled without intervention. I still haven't figured out what initiates the "Backup my settings" feature...may be done once system notices change or when GMail syncs.

 

I've done a few factory resets, but only the last one I did do I KNOW that I had made sure that under settings/privacy settings I had clicked "Back up my settings". Even then, I had nothing come back automatically but my contacts and calendar. Everything I had to "go get" back to my phone.

Wasn't *nearly* as painful as a reformat of a pc though!

 

I exchanged my Droid (teakettle noise in background) yesterday and I did most of the set-up instead of letting the VZW rep do it. I just told it to sync everything and A LOT of my apps redownloaded automatically... as well as my background image, but NOT my home screen layouts, and either FEW or NONE of my phone settings or application settings.

I had the free version of MyBackup (which is one I know DIDN'T automatically re-download), but it won't let me move stuff from another device unless I go pro... so I can't compare and see what else I might be missing.

 

But how long did you wait to format after enabling backup?

 

A few days...after the last factory reset I checked to make sure that "Back up my settings" was selected.

 

When I was in the Verizon store, so it must've been shortly after the Welcome to Android store. The rep handed it to me to enter my Google account info and it gave me some options ... something about sharing data with google (maybe statistical) and then I believe there was something about syncing. I've only seen it the one time, haven't done a hard reset myself, and the Verizon rep must've done it for me the first time. Something was different, though, because this time around, the setting in contacts to only show those with phone numbers wasn't checked off and maybe my first rep was just overzealous cause she also set up the email app with my gmail info, and that wasn't done this time... which is fine with me, the gmail app suits my needs.

 

I did the hard reset tonight and about 10 minutes later all my contacts and App are back on the phone. I do remember checking the sync box when setting up the phone. It worked for me.

 

Can I get back my contacts after reset?

 

Yes.

First, make sure that your settings are correct.

Settings---->Accounts&Sync--->Make sure both background data and Auto sync are checked---->then, perhaps more importantly, tap your gmail account under that and make sure all relevant items are checked (i.e. contacts).

If everything doesn't automagically repopulate after the reset go back to these settings and make sure the contacts are checked again.

 

Also, and just as important, once you log back into your phone, PUT IT DOWN AND DON'T TOUCH IT!!!!!!!!!!! For at least half an hour. In an area where you get reception. If you do this, prefferably do it in the eavning, right before you go to bed, your phone settings might not repopulate, but ALL your apps will. Paid and unpayed.
I know, the itch to play is hard to resist, but resist you must!!! You have the power!! It will work, I've done it many times.

 

This. I'm on my 4th D2G, and I've ROMmed all of them at least once or twice, so I've done this a GOOD number of times. The apps come back, you just have to give it some time. When the phone first comes on, it is doing A LOT of stuff after your reset. If you can, just turn wifi on, and walk away for an hour, that's how I've always done it, and I get 99% of my apps back.


Also, if you use Appbrain, then you can make a list of all your apps, and any that don't get restored automatically can be restored easily through appbrain.