Smartphone factory data reset?

[Quattro Pete]

My old Moto RazrM has become really slow. I thinking of just completely wiping it and starting from scratch.
Is this what the "Factory Data Reset" feature is for? Will it essentially bring the phone back to the same state as when Verizon shipped it to me 3 years ago, including the original Android OS version that was on it at that time?

Are there any settings that I should specifically preserve prior to reset? Or are app settings already backed up as part of my google account? Same thing with contacts, I guess? What about things like wallpapers and icon layouts on various screens/desktop? Can I preserve these or would I need to set these up afterwards?

 

[racer12306]

Pretty sure it wipes all the user data, but retains the currently installed OS. So if you're on 4.4 it will stay 4.4 and not revert to 4.1.

Google claims that they can backup app data, however, I think it relies on the developer to actually utilize that feature and if they don't use it then Google can't back it up. If there are any games/app data you want, check out Helium for non-root backup.

If you want any data saved, move it to removable storage but you will have to restore that manually after the fact.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: racer12306
Pretty sure it wipes all the user data, but retains the currently installed OS. So if you're on 4.4 it will stay 4.4 and not revert to 4.1.

Oh, I see. It'll remove all user-installed apps though, correct?

 

[racer12306]

As far as I know, yes.

 

[zach1900]

Yes. It will reset it to how it was before you ever activated it. The battery may be the only thing you'll notice isn't factory fresh.

 

[racer12306]

No, it will not reset the OS to previous versions. If that were the case, you wouldn't see people scratching their heads about how to revert OS when they don't like the upgrade.

 

[Alfred_B]

I did a factory reset on mine. It brought back to the way the phone was shipped to me, everything was wiped out. I had not updated the OS so don't have experience with that.

Since it was an old phone, some of the apps I had installed were no longer available and I lost quite a bit of functionality.

So proceed with caution if you have important apps and the OS is rather old.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Alfred_B

So proceed with caution if you have important apps and the OS is rather old.

I've made backups of all the .apk files for all my apps, so if they are not available in Google Play, I can always reinstall them from this backup.