Can someone explain to me why people are doing a clean install and not an update?

[TriJetHero]

Since you are a researcher, next time do some background check on the other person as well before giving helpful reading advice

I am no googler !

I don't think i mentioned google, i did however mention the hacks section on this forum you are using, besides that being a Dev makes your comments look worse not better.

 

[SanjeevRana]

I don't think i mentioned google, i did however mention the hacks section on this forum you are using, besides that being a Dev makes your comments look worse not better.

Alright man .. be happy ... you are right in all your comments before ... have a nice day

 

[TriJetHero]

Can someone explain to me why people are doing a clean install and not an upd...

That shouldn't ever be the case. If it is, there's a bug in iOS.

The way I see it, you might as well just upgrade. If there's a problem, try a fresh install - it's far less destructive that way.

All plist files are saved in /var/mobile/Library/preferences

Those are saved into your backups, how else would a restore know what your prferences where?

A lot of the battery drain issues on JBen and stock device stem from this problem.

 

[SanjeevRana]

All plist files are saved in /var/mobile/Library/preferences

Those are saved into your backups, how else would a restore know what your prferences where?

A lot of the battery drain issues on JBen and stock device stem from this problem.

So when iOS is released, Apple would be sending out emails to all users on how to restore to the new OS and then restore your backup ? Or would iTunes be "updating" the phones from 6.1.x to 7.x.x

And since we are talking about an update at this time to iOS7 GM which is pretty much the public release, I do not see any problems in "updating" instead of restore.

Feel free to contradict me, since you are watching this thread like a hawk

 

[dasx]

I can't tell about other's, but I do clean installs (restores) the same reason why I format my Mac everytime a new OS comes out.

I don't need to do it yet I do it. Why? Well… I've had problems in the past after just updating. Problems I can't really tell they appeared because of updating (probably not) but which definitely went away after restoring. So… I kind of got used to it.

I usually do OTA updates from 6.X to 6.X.Y or 6.Z, but when changing from iOS5 to 6, or iOS6 to iOS7… restore.

Same goes for OSX. Update from 10.8.3 to 10.8.4, but I'll definitely format to install 10.9.


As I said, it's probably just useless, but since I do this I never had to reinstall because of this or that issue.

 

[TriJetHero]

So when iOS is released, Apple would be sending out emails to all users on how to restore to the new OS and then restore your backup ? Or would iTunes be "updating" the phones from 6.1.x to 7.x.x

And since we are talking about an update at this time to iOS7 GM which is pretty much the public release, I do not see any problems in "updating" instead of restore.

Feel free to contradict me, since you are watching this thread like a hawk

Depends on how you update, OTA, update in itunes, restore in itunes.

Also people might be upgrading to a new device with an old backup.

Glad you are so mature you'll give the 'novice' non-dev a chances to explain to the expert Dev the basics of restoring!

 

[WeegieMac]

Brand new OS, was running beta 6, I wanted a fresh start.

Nothing "scientific" to it, I just personally prefer to start life on a new OS with a clean slate.

 

[eawmp1]

Here is a question:

On my phone, long deleted contacts show up when I start typing in an email address or text to line. If I do the clean install will these old contacts stored somewher in the phone disappear? I will be upgrading to a 5s and I really hate being reminded of people I tried to forget years ago.

 

[Damolee]

All plist files are saved in /var/mobile/Library/preferences

Those are saved into your backups, how else would a restore know what your prferences where?

A lot of the battery drain issues on JBen and stock device stem from this problem.

What about restoring from an iCloud back up? Does that work the same way?

That seems to reinstall all of the apps afterwards.

 

[Curun]

From what I have gathered, if you are on iOS6 (like me) and want to update, you can do so without loosing any data at all. This makes it so you do not need iTunes 11.1 beta bc you don't need to sync anything bc it is all already there (pictures/music/texts).

So, if this is the case than why are people doing a clean install? Does it make the phone faster or anything?

Even if it does, why not just Update now, and wait for iTunes 11.1 to be released, make a local backup of the updated iOS7 at that point, then do a clean install + restore once it is out. That way you can still use iOS7 until the new iTunes is released.

Everyone has their own 2 cents to toss in.

I feel like
release channel to release channel -> Update
beta channel to release channel -> wipe and start fresh

This is how Apple's engineers who designed it recommend. They are going to send iOS7 GM/GA as OTA update to everyone who is on iOS6. But they won't let you OTA update from beta to GM/GA.

Starting fresh will wipe out databases, like the spotlight, music, message, email, etc etc databases, and may make the device seem faster for awhile. It may be more of a placebo effect than anything.

 

[Daveoc64]

All plist files are saved in /var/mobile/Library/preferences

Those are saved into your backups, how else would a restore know what your prferences where?

A lot of the battery drain issues on JBen and stock device stem from this problem.

1) Why are you telling us something that's pretty obvious. A Backup says that it will preserve your preferences!

2) What problem are you talking about?

 

[grockk]

All plist files are saved in /var/mobile/Library/preferences

Those are saved into your backups, how else would a restore know what your prferences where?

A lot of the battery drain issues on JBen and stock device stem from this problem.

It is true that upgrade or restore from backup will carry over all these potentially incorrect plist files.

However, the solution is simple. Simply "reset all settings". Only thing left is data and some account for mail and calendars. I've had no issue using this after each update and not having any battery or other issues.

 

[TriJetHero]

It is true that upgrade or restore from backup will carry over all these potentially incorrect plist files.

However, the solution is simple. Simply "reset all settings". Only thing left is data and some account for mail and calendars. I've had no issue using this after each update and not having any battery or other issues.

Correct.

People are complaining that there device is slow and sluggish, a simple sollution is erase all settings, to prevent it in the first place is setup as new, ecpecially going to a whole new iOS version.

 

[dhlizard]

Here is a question:

On my phone, long deleted contacts show up when I start typing in an email address or text to line. If I do the clean install will these old contacts stored somewher in the phone disappear? I will be upgrading to a 5s and I really hate being reminded of people I tried to forget years ago.

The only way to get the phone to "forget" those is a clean install, do not restore to backup.

 

[cwosigns]

From what I have gathered, if you are on iOS6 (like me) and want to update, you can do so without loosing any data at all. This makes it so you do not need iTunes 11.1 beta bc you don't need to sync anything bc it is all already there (pictures/music/texts).

So, if this is the case than why are people doing a clean install? Does it make the phone faster or anything?

Even if it does, why not just Update now, and wait for iTunes 11.1 to be released, make a local backup of the updated iOS7 at that point, then do a clean install + restore once it is out. That way you can still use iOS7 until the new iTunes is released.

I updated to GM instead of a restore. The only device that seemed sluggish was my iPad 4. iPhone 5, iPad mini were both fine. On my iPad 4, I just reset all settings and it is completely fine.

 

[TriJetHero]

1) Why are you telling us something that's pretty obvious. A Backup says that it will preserve your preferences!

2) What problem are you talking about?

1) Well for some it was not that obvious, as illustrated by their posts
2) Sluggishness

In most recent iOS releases we had plenty of people running into battery drain issues which are often related restoring backup's, some of which dated back to the original iPhone.

If you read through the relevant posts you'll find a lot of people solving the sluggishness with a setup as new.

Edit:
We already have the first battery drain thread poping up

 

[gforce216]

I was able to save 1 GB of "Other" data by doing an the Option+Restore method.

My friend had done Option+Update and his FaceTime and iMessage features did not work. After doing Option+Restore and restoring from his backup it worked.

I just do it to clear out the Other data. For some reason restoring a backup after doing the Restore method just helps to clear that out.

 

[dontpannic]

I did a clean install of iOS 7 GM on my iPad Mini and iPhone 5. Why? I wanted to do some house keeping and start fresh. Get rid of unnecessary junk.

Precisely - all the data in all the apps you last used two years ago, general bits and pieces - if you jailbreak you can see the amount of crap that puts itself all over the file system...

 

[DJLC]

*shrug* I did a restore to GM from B6, then restored my iCloud backup. No lost data, much faster on my iPhone 4, and I haven't found any glitches yet in my limited use. We'll see how the day goes...

 

[jomo25]

If going from a 6.1.x to 7GM, I guess an update is fine. But if going from a 7Beta to 7GM, a clean install is required or at least highly recommended? I had beta 6 installed. So, I did a clean install of the GM.

 

[AppleFan360]

I do clean installs of the OS occasionally and restore my backup but heck, I'm still running on the same backup I've been using since the iPhone 1 and I've had every iPhone. No issues here. The backups are simply data and that's all. The OS is the core and that's the one that matters.

 

[makotoisle]

I did a clean install of iOS 7 GM on my iPad Mini and iPhone 5. Why? I wanted to do some house keeping and start fresh. Get rid of unnecessary junk.

Ditto. I have a 16GB iPhone 5 that was almost full. After some housekeeping and ditching things I haven't used in months, I have 8GB free now!!