For anyone with problems on 8.3...

[mazdamiata210]

I was on 8.1.2 jailbroken and was having major issues, notifications weren't coming through, dropped calls, missed texts and emails. It was a disaster. I've restored multiple times and setup as a new phone jailbroken and still had issues... I tried 8.1.2 stock and still problems. I got tired of it, and after saving my shsh file for 8.1.2 with tiny umbrella I restored to 8.2 and it fixed some of my problems however since I owned my 6+ I haven't killed it as much as I have while running 8.2... I lived with my phone completely being dead every day even with little to no use. I would get 12 hours of use consistently on 8.1.2 and any version prior with my 6+ and on 8.2 I was struggling to get 6 or 7 hours. Same apps, setup the same, and horrible battery life... Now 8.3 releases and I update without question. It was much better for bugs, but it still was struggling to get 12 hours daily use.

TLDR - I did a DFU restore, then did a regular restore, setup as a completely new phone. DO NOT restore from any backup - set itunes not to sync your phone. And for the last 3 days I've hit 12+ hours of use consistently.

 

[Ke1ington]

I consistently get around 10 hours of usage on my 6 after restoring from a backup that originated around my iPhone 5 era.

How people can restore and start from scratch with no backup is beyond me. I have several apps that have cumulative data that would be lost if I were to set up as new. Not to mention the text messages and game progress on the one or two that I play.

 

[sunking101]

I consistently get around 10 hours of usage on my 6 after restoring from a backup that originated around my iPhone 5 era.

How people can restore and start from scratch with no backup is beyond me. I have several apps that have cumulative data that would be lost if I were to set up as new. Not to mention the text messages and game progress on the one or two that I play.

If it's just a simple case of downloading a few apps and typing in a few phone numbers then I can see why people do it. Like you say though, app data and the 5GB of video & photos that I have on my phone would be a PITA to sort out on a regular basis. I have set up as new a couple of times before though, when trying to fix bugs.

 

[mazdamiata210]

I consistently get around 10 hours of usage on my 6 after restoring from a backup that originated around my iPhone 5 era.

How people can restore and start from scratch with no backup is beyond me. I have several apps that have cumulative data that would be lost if I were to set up as new. Not to mention the text messages and game progress on the one or two that I play.

Well this was for the people who were complaining about the issues in 8.3. I've been impressed after doing a clean install. Besides I have no apps that I couldn't live without the data they hold. I delete my texts every night before I go to sleep (waste of space on a 16 gig phone) and I have no games so that doesn't matter. The games I did play once or twice were all linked to facebook and the data was synced anyway. As for pictures, I have dropbox and mega camera upload so all my pictures are stored safe in 3 locations. I really don't lose anything from doing a clean install.

 

[Kurios2]

By installing the latest iTunes, I've found that it helps when doing an update.

When I tried to get into my messages, all were gone. After doing a soft reset, they were back. I've found that many problems can be fixed by doing a soft or hard reset.

8.3 actually sped up some apps to my surprise. Very happy with the update!
My phone is the 6 silver grey 128 GB.

 

[Mlrollin91]

How people can restore and start from scratch with no backup is beyond me. I have several apps that have cumulative data that would be lost if I were to set up as new. Not to mention the text messages and game progress on the one or two that I play.

I restore my phone every 6-12 months. Will be doing it again right before I get the AppleWatch so everything starts off as fresh. Most apps now have integration whether it be iCloud, Dropbox or their own server that backs up data.

For example:
Real Racing 3 - Their own server.
Road Trip - Dropbox/iCloud
OneSafe - Dropbox/iCloud


I could care less about keeping texts on my phone. If something is important I screenshot it or transfer the entire text string on to my computer (If I don't already have it there because of iMessages and Continuity).

 

[e93to]

I "clean-installed" iOS 8 because my new iPhone 5S wouldn't restore from backup (I was having display problem with my previous 5S, and Apple gave me a new one).

So far, no serious bugs or issues. Only a couple of minor glitches here and there (Safari did not display websites correctly at one point). Overall, operation is stable and smooth as butter. However, battery life is still bad. I struggle to get more than 5 hours out of full charge.

I think I spent about 4 hours (including 30 minutes of preparation and iTunes restore time) setting up the phone exactly like the contents of backup data. I took screenshots of app arrangements and settings before the compete restore, so I knew how to set it up without guessing.

I would say the question isn't whether you can do it. Yes, while bothersome, there is a way to manually back up apps' data and reimport them after restore (pictures, documents, settings, etc). I was actually surprised some stock apps store settings in the cloud (favorite locations in Map, keyboard shortcuts, etc). Text messages cannot be reimported, but I converted them to PDF files and store them on computer.

So question is... is it worth it? Spending 4+ hours to manually redownload all the apps and rearrange them, and to reconfigure settings like BT, etc. isn't a simple process. If you don't see any improvements on your phone after "clean install", then you just wasted 4 hours. Well, you never know until you do it.