5 Things To Remember Before Factory Resetting Your Android

During the stone age, a mere wooden stick may have been considered a prized possession but it’s all about smartphones in the 21st century. Irrespective of demographic variables which vary among different regions of the globe, smartphone usage can definitely be regarded as a common factor among humans today.

“With greater technologies comes greater issues” and one of the issues we face today is the disruption of our perfectly balanced life due to smartphone issues. Smartphones have obviously become few of the most important objects without which survival in today’s world would be next to impossible.

One of the best solutions recommended for software issues is to do a factory reset for which one of the prerequisites includes taking a regular backup of your smartphone data. This would also prove beneficial in case of physical damage, theft or exchanging your phone for a newer one. But before taking this one major step solution of factory reset there are a few preliminaries that one should not avoid.

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1. Backup

Cambridge dictionary defines backup as “ a copy of information held on a computer that is stored separately from the computer “. This definition becomes relevant when the word ‘computer’ is substituted by the word ‘smartphone’. Before performing a factory reset, one must take a backup of the contacts, SMSs, app purchases, calendar, photos etc. Google has the technology to carry out automatic backup, if the required permission has been provided. However, sometimes it is advisable to take matters in your own hands and for that it is important to know as to what should be backed up.

a) Contacts

These include all the telephone numbers of people you communicate with. Generally, they are saved in your sim card and are visible after you reset your phone or purchase a new one, but there are times when the contacts are saved in your phone memory instead.

1. To avoid loss of those precious contacts, Google has provided a facility of Backup & Restore which once synced will not only save your contacts but also calendar, photos and music to its servers. This can be achieved with two or three taps and restored back on your formatted or new device. Before resetting, ensure all your data has been backed up recently by heading over to Settings > Accounts (tap Google) > Select Google account > check everything you want to sync.
2.  Alternatively, you can export a .vcf file to your SD card/Flash drive and import the same file on your formatted or new phone. This can be done by your default ‘Contacts’ app.

b)  SMS

If you want to view your valuable SMS texts, as they were before formatting your smartphone, the only option is to take a backup. For this you would need a third-party app which would save all your messages on your Google drive and then restore them later. I recommend using SMS Organizer from Microsoft Corporation which would not only backup and restore your messages but also organize them as per their content into predefined folders like spam, personal, transaction etc.

c) App Data. Some apps like ‘WhatsApp’ provide in-app backup features where all the chats and content can be backed up on Google Drive and later restore once you install WhatsApp back on your formatted phone. Apart from some software, it is not recommended to take a backup of all apps as one of them might be reason for the non-smooth functioning of the device which led to the factory reset in the first place.

2. Copy Files and Folders

Before resetting your smartphone, it is recommended to connect your phone to an external storage drive. A few basic mobile accessories would be required such as:

A) SD card/Flash drive with OTG connector. Make sure that the smartphone supports OTG data transfer and the drive is not less than 16 GB.

or

B) Data cable. All new chargers come in two units, a wall socket with USB Port and a wire with USB and Micro USB connector. The USB connector can be inserted into the computer’s USB port which would then access the smartphone as an external drive.

The main purpose of this would be to copy your smartphone content which include media files like photos, audio and video files, documents like eBooks, pdfs, spreadsheets etc. and miscellaneous files like installation files (.apk), contact files (.vcf) and other app specific files.

3. Battery percentage must be more than 70%

If you want to do a factory reset on your android phone, make sure that the phone battery is above 70% to ensure a smooth formatting. If the phone runs out of power while reset, it could lead to a bricked phone.

4. List of apps and Screenshots

One of the easiest ways to restore the previous look of your smartphone is to make a list of all the important third-party apps which can be installed later by logging into the Play Store > My apps and games > Library. Also screenshots of all the home screens and application launcher screens can help you to redesign your formatted smartphone back to the way you wanted.

5. Exit Micro SD card

The final step after taking all backups and copying all files, is to remove any MicroSD card from your smartphone to avoid accidental deletion of files on the card during factory reset operation.

Factory reset is an irreversible action. One must take heed and exercise caution while carrying out this process and it is always recommended to back up your data to Google servers so that it can be restored later. Alternatively, backup can be done on the SD card and most OEMs today provide backup facilities to their respective cloud servers as well.