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Factory reset poll: Did it help you? YES or NO.

I been around this place a while and I have observed how poor frustated Fascinate owners have been advised to do a FACTORY RESET to presumably fix a multitude of problems, I don't post a lot but I read a lot and I estimate that about 80% of the time a FACTORY RESET did only one thing: You lost all your custom settings and apps (except for bloatware) and nothing was fixed.

I know I may be wrong, so please respond and help others. If a factory reset DID help you just post YES and brief description of problem it fixed. If it didn't, post NO and brief description of problem it DID NOT help with. I will get the ball rolling.

No, problem was could not install Froyo update. My phone.

No, problem was could not install Froyo update. Wife's phone.

Comments

Smooner1

Nope. Same problems with my phone spontaneously turning off or just restarting.
Lost my cool apps and all my customizations for no improvement. =/

Smokie11

Although it doesn't look like this poll will provide any statistical answer because it is not being used. I will suggest this before you do a factory reset, remove battery for at least 5-10 minutes, remove recently added apps, clear your caches. The techniques I mentioned actually have helped people here. Verizon employees continue to advise you do a factory reset even when they have no idea that it will actually help you, they are plain guessing and for most people here it has been the wrong guess and you wind up with a wiped clean phone WITH THE SAME PROBLEM AS BEFORE.

You may wind up needing a replacement phone and that has not exactly proven that succesfull here. Good luck.

Smokie11

So far we have:

Factory Reset Helped: 0

Factory Reset No Help: 3

Too bad with so many views per day so little response.

SFObrien

I have seen the factory reset fix minor issues, but when software updates won't download, reboot loops, or any other major malfunction occurs the factory reset is worthless................

Smokie11

I agree, there has been instances where a factory reset has helped with a specific problem, my intent is not that it should be ruled out but I feel bad for the people that come in here seeking help and the first thing they are told is "do a factory reset" and let us know if it helped.

Wildman

Factory reset isnt the golden solution but it can resolve a number of the issues because of the same reason Clearing Cache helps sometimes, it clears the settings stored for apps and allow them to reload with a fresh configuration file... Most issue come from a stray app that has conflicting settings that causes communication issues between the apps and the OS.

When you hard reset you remove all apps and previous data that usually resolves the issue but then users reinstall all the apps they had on the device again and the cycle starts all over again.

I am one that has made a habit to hard reset before any major updates to avoid issues after update and this has proven to work well for me because a number of the issues users has reported I never seen on my device do to this process..

magsgundah

YES. My problem was reboot loop shortly after the Gingerbread update.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Factory reset three weeks ago and am slowly adding back third-party apps. Haven't had an issue since.

Logic told me that the first culprit to look into was third-party apps that might not work on Gingerbread but did with Froyo. It appears that I was right, as, since I reset and everything was wiped, my phone has worked flawlessly.

ladywolf_siobhan

Nope! Factory Reset it and my phone worked properly for only a moment before going back to doing what it was doing before. I couldn't send text, but could recieve them, every text I sent would not send and would always have the current time that was on the phone on the text I tired to send. Factory resetting it allowed me to send a couple of text before it went back to doing what it was doing before. Call Verizon, they are sending me a refurb phone, if it doesn't work, I brought my phone through best buy and already been told I can get another phone. not even going to give the Fascinate the time of day if this doesn't work.

ILikeColdPizza

No.

Ghost back button and frequent screen captures still happen, along with all the other problems.

Wildman

This basically prove that not all devices have the same outcome.. Usually this is because of the differences of software and applications..

tma08

No, it did not help. I have had my Fascinate since April 2011 and I have had nothing but problems with the phone and all I kept getting was 'I'm sorry you're experiencing that. Let's see what we can do." Then all they can do is reset it to factory settings. The problem was in the phone's software itself, Verizon even admitted to this! Since I paid for the extended warranty and the phone is still under the manufacture's year warranty, I'm eligible for a refurbished version of the same phone. So long as i can send messages without having to turn my phone off to do so, the screen responds and I have little to no problem until my upgrade date; I'll be fine. Call customer service and bitch, bitch, bitch. They will direct you to someone who CAN help and get you fixed. Hope this helps someone!

phone_bill

NO. come on, that's just a stall tactic to make you think that they're helping you. If they spend enough time doing things that only make your phone worse (like wiping out all of your setting ect.) you'll give up and leave them alone :smileyhappy:

Wildman

I do see how you could see it as a stall tactics but it isnt the case, since Android apps are not verified as being optimized for the OS they are known to cause a number of issues and also defragments the storage because of data being missed handled.

Hard resetting removes the problems a large amount of the time... Until they get a workable way to address this issue without removing the develpers freedom to develope hard resetting can be a possible solution.

Smokie11

Not enough responses to form an accurate statistical model, however the NO'S do outnumber the YES. If this thread serves any positive purpose it may be that it is not wise to run to the "Factory Reset" solution as your first choice to correct your problem. Try the many possible less drastic solutions first and use Factory Reset as a last resort when all else fails. Factory Reset can correct problems caused by third party apps and possibly bloatware apps. but it cannot correct corrupt system files or a hardware problem.

Losing all your custom settings and apps. can be specially frustating if after doing the Factory Reset you still have the same original problem. All I advocate is read, start with less intrusive possible solutions and use "Factory Reset" as your last resort... not first. Good Luck.

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